Vigils of the Night Office

by Paul Edward Costa

The title Vigils of the Night Office comes from The Rule of St. Benedict, a book which outlines the duties for Benedictine monks. Documents describe the vigils of the Night Office as “The Office at night, right before dawn is a very ancient monastic prayer time…with the goal of breaking up the night and sanctifying those hours.” This collection evokes the idea of poems as private prayers speaking to both individual experiences as well as more general cultural themes. These vigils reflect on a variety of subjects using accessible, narrative forms which emphasise speech’s musicality while investigating large, powerful, and nefarious structures in our society.

117 pages, Paperback

Published January 31, 2025