These are quiet revelations, subtle and deeply felt, of a man who questions the why, the what, the how of his own being. In this collection, the poet is looking into a mirror and seeing himself and not himself, seeing the mirror and what the mirror can never reflect. It’s as if the heart yearns to understand its own beating, the eye to see its own seeing, the ear to hear its listening. Who are you? And what? These are the kinds of questions underlying these musings and seeking, if not an answer, an honesty, a silence. Or just a moment alone.
What I love particularly about these poems is the fine line they walk between the literal and the abstract, the physical and the metaphysical, prose and poetry. The lens one looks through is so clear and unsparingly honest, I have the urge to wince or look away, and yet I am drawn in by their careful renderings and intricate beauty. Reading bill I envision a soul laid out on a medical table, covered by a paper sheet, as a doctor leans forward to take its pulse and listen for a heartbeat and then ask, every so politely, what brings you here? Tell me how you are doing? And why?
- Nin Andrews
Nin Andrews is the author of Spontaneous Breasts, winner of the 1998 Pearl Chapbook contest,
The Book of Orgasms, and Why They Grow Wings, winner of the Gerald Cable Poetry Award in 2001.
William Rector has a doctor’s touch with words – at once delicate and probing and forceful. He knows very well the severe limitations of our hopes but he appreciates and treasures the slivers of compassion that bless dark days. He knows what it is like to give the worst of news to people but he knows that poems remain good news – they seek to feel deeply and that is never wrong. This is a very strong collection.
- Baron Wormser
Baron Wormser is the author of numerous collections of poetry, most recently
Carthage from Illuminated Sea Press, as well as a guide for teaching poetry,
Teaching the Art of Poetry: the Moves. His poems, essays and reviews have
appeared in numerous journals, including The Paris Review, The New Republic, and Harper’s.