For Now, We Have Been Spared

Written during the

first three “Covid Years,” For Now, We Have Been Spared is a collection

of complex sequences and carefully constructed shorter poems that reflect the

uncertainty of living through a pandemic—not only in terms of the immediate

threats to the body, but also the tectonic shifts in how we perceive the nature

of existence itself.

The opening sequence—a

sustained, metaphorical meditation on the devastation caused by the multiple

deaths of a friend’s sons, sets a tone of elegiac reflection that runs

throughout the collection. Near tragedies are paired with simple joys; sickness

is mirrored by health; coming-of-age is followed by poems immersed in the

experience of aging.

These are poems that carry the weight of decades of observation and experience. Their subjects range

from the commonplaces of domestic life to the public realm of politics. What

binds all of them together is their grounding in sensory detail. Extended narrative

is present in nearly every poem. The subtle cadences of prose poetry also make

their presence felt. These poems are set in particular, recognizable places and

populated by everyday people who find themselves confronting trying

circumstances. Always, though, hovering at the edge of perception, there

remains the possibility of redemption and grace.