The Velvet Book

When stargazing, certain phenomena can only be seen with peripheral sight. I'm reminded of this fact by Rae Gouirand's long poem The Velvet Book, whose indirect engagement with subjects yields true vision. Love, death, the past, what might yet be possible, what a self is and is not-all are strung together here like sumptuous, light-shot gems, and the couplets that carry them flow easily as brook water, page into page into page. This book is a beautiful experience.

-Christopher Nelson

By turns...