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144 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2014
The Gospel of John was right:These are the closing lines of "Hymn," the final poem in Spencer Reece's spare and moving collection. They really say everything that the book is about: the "so much life" that Reece crams into his pages, his unique confessional voice that manages to say freshly what many others have written about before, his identity as an older gay man, the quality of renunciation that throbs through many of these poems, his deep spirituality—and above all, his ability to "write it down, just as it happened."
the world holds so much life.
There are not enough books to record it all.
I kissed the young man on his cheek, very lightly.
— Jesus said to them: "Unbind him, and let him go."
We each went our separate ways
following where we were being led.
Marie said: "Write it down, just as it happened."
John K., from the meetings, dead now too, once said:
"Oh, I knew Durrell. He was odd. But we're all odd, you know."
All I know now
is the more he loved me, the more I loved the world.
At Thomas Merton’s Grave
We can never be with loss too long.
Behind the warped door that sticks,
the wood thrush calls to the monks,
pausing atop the stone crucifix,
singing: “I am marvelous alone!”
Thrash, thrash goes the hayfield:
rows of marrow and bone undone.
The horizon’s flashing fastens tight,
sealing the blue hills with vermilion.
Moss dyes a squirrel’s skull green.
The cemetery expands its borders—
little milky crosses grow like teeth.
How kind time is, altering space
so nothing stays wrong: and light,
more new light, always arrives.