Working Out

He comes each week to loosen his limbs, lose some weight, make the heart beat stronger, longer. This is a skilful collection by a poet well acquainted with relative place: wherever a poem lives, it always remembers its place in the world. Indeed, juxtapositions and connections – with place, culture, and among humans – are where the poet flexes his muscle – ‘works out’ his ideas. The poet gazes outward and inward with the same critical eye: he kindly refuses to judge the humans in his poems, instead offering them up as precise portraits, and even in dialect, never caricatures. The poet is never far from the frame, sharing in our delight, disappointment, upset, and wonder.