Not Hearing the Wood Thrush

'I look about and find whatever I see / unfinished,' Margaret Gibson writes in these powerful and moving poems, which investigate a late-life genesis. Not Hearing the Wood Thrush grapples with the existential questions that come after experiencing a great personal loss. A number of poems meditate on loneliness and fear; others speak to 'No one'-a name richer than prayer or vow.' In this transformative new collection, Gibson moves inward, taking surprising, mercurial turns of the imagination, guided by an original and probative intelligence. With a clear eye and an open heart, Gibson writes, 'How stark it is to be alive'-and also how glorious, how curious, how intimate.