A World Without End

by Matthew Graham

In the sixth volume of the River City Poetry Series, Matthew Graham muses over the stages of life and the entelechy of the human spirit, over the internal missions that are seeded within us from birth, and yet how our environments define and transform us. These poems describe by turns a childhood infused with adult longing (collecting fireflies in a jelly jar becomes a precognitive exercise), an adulthood choked with memories (daylight savings time becomes an excuse to invoke the past), and the sweet redemption of love, as passing time provides the medium and grace for mistakes to be, finally, “Time turns us all … toward the inevitable struggle between opening and closing, between the waiting and the going somewhere.” Here is a travelogue to a place invented, a country familiar yet unexpected.Series editor Andrew Hudgins “A thoughtful elegiac voice pervades Matthew Graham's World Without End, his new book and best book yet. A small sense of mourning arises even in his celebration of deep and continuing love because he knows love, in the fullness of time, inevitably ends, even if the lovers never falter in their loving. That doubled understanding moves him to the richest music in a life work rich in music and meditation. World Without End is stately without stiffness, thoughtful without pretense, humorous without being indecorous, clear without being simple. It offers a pleasure in every line and a fresh moment of insight and understanding on every page.”

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2007