Dense, full of images, and deep with emotion, these poems trace family trauma with traces of suicide, homelessness, drug abuse, loneliness, poverty, and disassociation.

Nick Flynn’s collections can be hit or miss for me. I’ve really enjoyed a couple of them and then been totally disconnected from others. Luckily this collection really worked for me! I’m glad I gave his work another try. This collection had a good range of topics that I could connect to and understand and when I felt disconnected from the subject matter the form and language pulled me back in!

Nick Flynn is haunted by the past, the present, and the future all at once. From etymological lessons stretching back to ancient Sanskrit and the book of Revelation, it’s all there, and in between is his current life—sometimes good, sometimes less so. Along the way, his poems and pseudo-essays give the reader a treat: repeat readers will find familiar landscapes and rhythms, while newcomers have the advantage of encountering Flynn’s constructions with a fresh eye.

This collection contains a lot about grief, losing people, and almost losing yourself. Through images of nature, the nature of life’s impermanence.