The Deep Blue of Neptune

Winner of the 2024 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize

The Deep Blue of Neptune is a striking, meditative collection of poems by Terry Belew, which reminds readers of the necessity of empathy in the midst of uncertain and unsettling times. Set against a rural backdrop, Belew's poems reside in the everyday--driving on gravel backroads, roaming the aisles of Walmart, and doomscrolling on a smart phone--to highlight the contradictory qualities of existence.

Belew utilizes a variety of forms, familiar...