Yes Thorn

Poetry. Winner of the Berkshire Prize for a First or Second Book of Poetry, selected by Paisley Rekdal. YES THORN abides with mysteries--mortality, spirituality, sexuality, nature, divinity, love--and interrogates them without necessarily pressing toward or expecting explanation. Its diction is sometimes ornate, but language and images that dwell in more classically lyric places are often undercut or mixed with tougher, blunter elements.

YES THORN uses language in new and exciting ways. And I admire how this poet asks the critical questions: What connects us, to each other and to belief? Can we be connected--to ideas, to lovers, to religious belief, to family--without also being inscribed by these connections? Can we be moved by desire and longing without becoming subject to them?--Paisley Rekdal