TantivyPaperback, 18 September 2012

Through close attention to nature's myriad syntheses and separations, Donald Revell's sage lyric meditations seek and find proof of the otherworldly. These poems are ripe with the ecstatic vision we come to expect from Revell's work.

Victorians

There is snow and there is snow.
A young woman, daughter of the eminent physician,
Disrobes at her window, and starvation,
Like a pack of dogs with jeweled mouths,
Pauses a moment, howls, and the young woman
Recites a poem to herself.

So long ago the words are lost
Even as each remains a part of us.
Christmas meaning snow out of a broiling sun.
Humanity meaning numbers.
Childhood meaning children and railings and kisses
Never kissed but carved into real trees.

Motherless goddamn modernity never grew.
Here we are again at Christmas
On fire escapes without a fire in view.

Poet, translator, and critic Donald Revell has authored ten previous collections of poetry. Winner of the 2008 NEA Translation Award, the 2004 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and two-time winner of the PEN Center USA Award in Poetry, Revell has received fellowships from the NEA, Ingram Merrill, and Guggenheim memorial foundations. He is poetry editor of Colorado Review.