The Canopy

by Patricia Clark

How do we move forward after enormous loss? Perhaps like the lightning-struck tree, "half of it shorn of leaves the other half full, standing, / swaying...." In these beautiful, intimate poems spoken from the heart of grief, the speaker urges herself not to flinch, "letting the knife settle where it will, / blade nestled between a rib and a rib." Life and death go hand and hand here, and the natural world that consoles is also a constant reminder of our own mortality. Because Clark is a terrific poet, she can also make something true and moving "out of cold air...with lamenting words...an invigorating, heel-kicking tune."

--Sharon Bryan, Sharp Stars

Genres: Poetry

94 pages, Paperback

Published January 2, 2017

About the author

Patricia Clark is the author of Self-Portrait with a Million Dollars, her sixth book of poems, and three chapbooks. She has work just out (or forthcoming) in Plume, The Southern Review, North American Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Cimarron Review, Pedestal, Quartet, and Innisfree Poetry Journal. Her poem “Astronomy: ‘In Perfect Silence’” was chosen to go to the moon as part of the Lunar Codex on a NASA Space X flight in fall 2024. Her seventh book of poems, O Lucky Day, is forthcoming in January ’25 from Madville Publishing.

Reviews

[Michael Meyerhofer]

“It’s stranger than you can account for, / being alive…” writes Patricia Clark in her latest collection of poems, The Canopy—a powerful book that proves not just that Patricia herself is a fantastic and essential poet, but that as a general rule, the greatest elements of human strength are found in tenderness and vulnerability. Even in grief, these poems are a celebration, a reaffirming of a deeply cherished undercurrent. These poems present a refreshing stylistic range as well, not to mention a generous dose of dark humor (“If I were called in / to construct a religion… / I would made use of trees”). Highly recommended!

[Steven]

I read this book of short poems over a few winter days under a gunmetal-grey sky. The poem's images are vivid, and the verses evoke a sense of loss. These poems are not the easiest to understand in a single reading. There is more to come when the poems are read a second time.

[Rita Quillen]

A beautiful, moving, symphony of poems. A collection with a great tonal consistency and interconnectedness that is hard to pull off...

[Michelle]

What a thoughtful way (rather many ways) of looking at loss and how to see it.We see through these poems the afterwards of loss and the positive ways things can heal.Looking at memories of someone or something and getting meaning through them is wonderful.The words that are forever in our heads from someone we love(d) are very important to our health and life.In "Rowing American Lake" it is evident in the way her father stayed with her in all she does and she can hear him urging her on and inspiring her.In "Columbus Day Storm" the idea that one person can see something and then become the storyteller to enthrall others.That is an awesome image and idea that we should all run away with.

[Nina]

book.https://liveoakreview.net/2018/01/24/...