Third-Class Relics

<p>The pleasures provided by Scott Dalgarno's <em>Third-Class Relics </em>are abundant. In evidence are a discerning mind a musical ear a witty intellect and a bruised but open heart.</p><p>With precise diction compelling narratives and smooth inviting language Dalgarno examines a wide array of subjects. Here is a poet at ease with unease. In one poem he</p><p>defines limbo as a place where Kettle never boils; dog circles / and circles but never lies down. In another he addresses an unrealized zygote this way: Your not being here / is</p><p>everywhere. For me a good poem both entertains and disturbs the latter by shaking us from complacency. Scott Dalgarno's book is filled with such poems. <em>Third-Class Relics</em> is a</p><p>first-class triumph.</p><p>-Andrea Hollander author of <em>And Now Nowhere But Here</em></p><p></p><p>There go the swallows / taking it out on the morning writes Dalgarno whose collection is a stirring portrayal of a life pulled in to focus. The poems in <em>Third-Class Relics</em> ask us to</p><p>reckon with the lyric tension of our lives in the metaphoric borderland of so many kinds of rapture. It arrives with a fresh and clear voice that invites its reader to remember they</p><p>are always already a viewer a visitor and a voyeur too.</p><p>-Meg Day author of <em>Last Psalm at Sea Level</em></p><p></p>