twenty-one farewells

<p>From arcing fireworks to a bat in the belly of a church organ Emily Kerlin's poems explore the expansive</p><p>territory of farewell. Each poem enshrouds the reader in a mystery of loss some minuscule others astronomical coaxing them toward revelation. And in what striking forms these revelations manifest: a boy lost forever as Mice scuttle in the hay/ brittle leaves scratch/ in the autumn chill; a husband struggling with the constant problem/ of breath; a plague and its wake of crocuses pushing purple into this cold March morning. Kerlin's poetry compels you to lean in a little closer to listen and look with more intention then rewards you with a spill of starlight and the fragile lace of the human lung.</p>