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Night Angler
WINNER OF THE 2018 JAMES LAUGHLIN AWARD
Geffrey Davis’s second collection of poems reads as an evolving love letter and meditation on what it means to raise an American family. In poems that express a deep sense of gratitude and wonder, Davis delivers a heart-strong prayer that longs for home, for safety for black lives, and for the messy success of breaking through the trauma of growing up during the crack epidemic to create a new model of fatherhood. Filled with humor and tenderness, Night Angler sings its own version of a song called grace―sung with a heavy and hopeful mix of inherited notes and discovered chords.
Geffrey Davis’s second collection of poems reads as an evolving love letter and meditation on what it means to raise an American family. In poems that express a deep sense of gratitude and wonder, Davis delivers a heart-strong prayer that longs for home, for safety for black lives, and for the messy success of breaking through the trauma of growing up during the crack epidemic to create a new model of fatherhood. Filled with humor and tenderness, Night Angler sings its own version of a song called grace―sung with a heavy and hopeful mix of inherited notes and discovered chords.
- GenresPoetry
112 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2019
1 person is currently reading
154 people want to read
About the author
Geffrey Davis
9 books27 followersGeffrey Davis is the author of Night Angler (BOA Editions), winner of the 2018 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets, and Revising the Storm (BOA Editions), winner of the 2013 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. He also coauthored the chapbook Begotten (URB Books, 2016) with LA-based poet F. Douglas Brown. His words have appeared in Crazyhorse, Massachusetts Review, Mississippi Review, New England Review, New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, PBS NewsHour, Ploughshares, Poetry Northwest, and elsewhere.
Named a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Davis has received the Anne Halley Poetry Prize, the Dogwood Prize in Poetry, and the Wabash Prize for Poetry, as well as fellowships from Bread Loaf, Cave Canem, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. He was also awarded a Public Engagement Fellowship from the Whiting Foundation for his work with The Prison Story Project.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Davis lives with his family in Fayetteville, AR. He teaches at the University of Arkansas and with The Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran's low-residency MFA program. Davis also serves as poetry editor for Iron Horse Literary Review.
Named a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, Davis has received the Anne Halley Poetry Prize, the Dogwood Prize in Poetry, and the Wabash Prize for Poetry, as well as fellowships from Bread Loaf, Cave Canem, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Vermont Studio Center. He was also awarded a Public Engagement Fellowship from the Whiting Foundation for his work with The Prison Story Project.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Davis lives with his family in Fayetteville, AR. He teaches at the University of Arkansas and with The Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran's low-residency MFA program. Davis also serves as poetry editor for Iron Horse Literary Review.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
April 13, 2022
Gritty and heartfelt, painfully felt, yet also hopeful. This book is divided into 5 sections. My favorites include:
From Section I:
The Epistemology of Cheerios
Favorite line: "our son's first upright wobble"
Prayer with Miscarriage / Grant Us the Ruined Grounds
Favorite line, "to calyx together a body bold"
From Section III:
I Have My Father's Hands
Favorite lines: "from the daily stone-grief of family- each slab fitted and refitted with the gravity of tomorrow"
The Book of Family
Favorite lines: "our belonging has always been played in the key of desire on instruments my father lifted so well - got us to hand over the steel strings from our guitar hearts"
What I Mean When I Say Harmony
Favorite lines: "I want the Southern dark proud to hum another brown tiredness from your body, hymned by safety."
From Section I:
The Epistemology of Cheerios
Favorite line: "our son's first upright wobble"
Prayer with Miscarriage / Grant Us the Ruined Grounds
Favorite line, "to calyx together a body bold"
From Section III:
I Have My Father's Hands
Favorite lines: "from the daily stone-grief of family- each slab fitted and refitted with the gravity of tomorrow"
The Book of Family
Favorite lines: "our belonging has always been played in the key of desire on instruments my father lifted so well - got us to hand over the steel strings from our guitar hearts"
What I Mean When I Say Harmony
Favorite lines: "I want the Southern dark proud to hum another brown tiredness from your body, hymned by safety."
March 26, 2025
we need more books where men share their perspectives on fatherhood
January 30, 2025
Absolutely loved this. Heartfelt, poignant, and hopeful.
February 4, 2025
i rarely want to reread books i've for the magazine.
this book i immediately started again, and i intend to reread it again and again until the ink from the pages leaches through my fingerpads into my bloodstream until the blood from my papercuts run as black as the river of the night angler.
this book i immediately started again, and i intend to reread it again and again until the ink from the pages leaches through my fingerpads into my bloodstream until the blood from my papercuts run as black as the river of the night angler.
June 23, 2020
My favorites-:
“Human Note”
“A Proposal from the Previously Divorced”
“Self- Portrait with Headwaters”
“Pleasure of Place
“The Night Angler”
“Human Note”
“A Proposal from the Previously Divorced”
“Self- Portrait with Headwaters”
“Pleasure of Place
“The Night Angler”
December 17, 2019
"Night Angler" is a truly fine collection of poems by Geffrey Davis, as he meditates on the meaning of fatherhood. His own father failed that role but finally asks for some forgiveness. The poet himself tries to learn and be truer to the name, Father. The title and title poems suggest a man who fishes the night for meaning and faith and forgiveness and hope.
Dear Boy: In the beginning,
father was a fear I wanted
to call love. For years I waded
heart-deep into that doubt
for version of my name
I could, with some forgiveness,
cast before your image.
Dear Boy: Here's my hand---
because your arrival has
mended the grave current
of time, in the beginning
I was talking to you.
The language is truly fine. The emotion personal yet universal, poetic yet deep and real.
...light creeps
all across a distinct range of mountain,
stunning plateau of birds into the original
sweetness of song. We want to understand this---
according to our appetite for pulling
a rare, angular music from the body's
dark cathedral. Or we grow stubborn
for the wild severity of wind
plying trees. We want the vastness of that
motion, the sleep. We desire so much from more.
Davis succeeds in "pulling a rare, angular music" from his desire and body, singing us some of that "vastness of motion" we all want to hear--- and to be.
Dear Boy: In the beginning,
father was a fear I wanted
to call love. For years I waded
heart-deep into that doubt
for version of my name
I could, with some forgiveness,
cast before your image.
Dear Boy: Here's my hand---
because your arrival has
mended the grave current
of time, in the beginning
I was talking to you.
The language is truly fine. The emotion personal yet universal, poetic yet deep and real.
...light creeps
all across a distinct range of mountain,
stunning plateau of birds into the original
sweetness of song. We want to understand this---
according to our appetite for pulling
a rare, angular music from the body's
dark cathedral. Or we grow stubborn
for the wild severity of wind
plying trees. We want the vastness of that
motion, the sleep. We desire so much from more.
Davis succeeds in "pulling a rare, angular music" from his desire and body, singing us some of that "vastness of motion" we all want to hear--- and to be.
October 12, 2021
Night Angler by Geffrey Davis is a wonderful meditation on fatherhood, specifically his relationship with his son, his father, and amending trauma from childhood. Beyond that, this collection explores natural landscapes, Black identity in America, Christian identity, fishing, and grace in the face of loss. The poem "The Night Angler" intrigued me with the opening line: "A headlamp guides me through October cornfields" because the notion of an angler fish is that it has a small dangling light in the deep sea that it uses to lure out food and Davis is drawing this comparison to his own fishing adventure. As I moved through the book, I found that Davis often repeated titles such as "The Night Angler," "What I Mean When I Say Harmony," and "3:16." It seems that the title's meaning changes with each repetition and evolves to encompass each image he procures. With "The Night Angler," he begins by contextualizing the title in a. fishing context while evoking the image of a single headlamp in a swamp of darkness; the speaker in the second poem has a completely different structure and seems to speak directly to God when he says "Let this man teach another to move/ through the nothing/ that begs to be feared." To me, this sounds like he is asking the Lord for strength to be a good father who can hold the torchlight for his son to see the beauty of darkness. In the last "Night Angler," the speaker admits that he has been writing these guiding poems for fatherhood and life to "Dear Boy," which could be interpreted as his son.
Overall, I loved the intricate connection between poems and the exploration of fatherhood, revealing both the struggles and the light. In particular, I liked "The Epistemology of Cheerios," "Smolder," "3:16:: So Loved," "Like a River,"and "The Epistemology of Growing Pains." I am excited to read this collection again after experiencing being a parent (in the far far future, of course).
Overall, I loved the intricate connection between poems and the exploration of fatherhood, revealing both the struggles and the light. In particular, I liked "The Epistemology of Cheerios," "Smolder," "3:16:: So Loved," "Like a River,"and "The Epistemology of Growing Pains." I am excited to read this collection again after experiencing being a parent (in the far far future, of course).
April 20, 2019
Both on the level of language and subject, I found this collection deeply beautiful. It is a book of poems I will read and re-read. It offers the reader a different model of masculinity. One which our violent world desperately needs, a determined tenderness, clearly hard-won and an ongoing effort, for Geffrey Davis and presents vulnerability (that is accepting imperfection and impermanence as part of human experience) as strength. Every poem blew me away.
November 9, 2019
I've been reading some great things lately, and while parts of this were fine, some things came across a bit uneven for me. Language can be like that. I get it. I am sure most of what I write, no one cares for. But why I read these things is for a glimpse into the life of another, even for a brief second, just that entryway into what otherwise is impossible. I can't say this didn't happen in some of these pieces.
September 17, 2020
Having used Geffrey Davis' first book in my classes for several years, I wanted more of his work, which I am using this semester to discuss what poetry means in my effective writing classes. For many students, there isn't a lot of background in contemporary poetry. So far, this book has sparked some lively discussions for us. Looking forward to seeing some papers on some of the pieces soon! Students also felt that the book was relatable and connected to issues they care about.
January 28, 2020
Dense, electrified poems wrestling with fatherhood, fishing, wildness, and other matters. The most charged poems deal directly with the author's own father, who he knew as "father-abuser", "father-addict", and "father-thief", concluding, about his own growth as a new father, "Do you hear / what it means to me to sing my son to sleep?"
July 10, 2020
This book took me more deeply into what the experience of parenting might look like from my husband's side in all kinds of tender ways that I loved. It also help me add another angle to my understanding of the BLM movement. And the PNW references were delightful surprises that made me feel even closer to the book.
May 28, 2021
A stunning read and beautiful follow up to one of my favorite books, Revising the Storm, Davis excels even more in this book. What I enjoy most is the deep and honest intimacy the poet shares of fatherhood, a kindred voice for any parent, for any reader reflecting on family and race. I return to these poems often and always find new meanings.
March 13, 2020
Not since BLESSING THE BOATS by Lucille Clifton have I enjoyed a collection so completely.
February 20, 2021
my god. i’d give this little tome more than 5 stars if i could. these poems gutted me in the best possible way. they’re full of both the pain and magic of being alive. read them.
August 5, 2023
Poignant and beautiful reflections on fatherhood, cycle breaking, being Black in America, and faith, expressed by a singular voice.
November 6, 2023
tender & brutal & beautiful ouch. my favorites: what i mean when i say harmony (ch. 1), i have my fathers hands, from the country notebooks, and the night angler (ch. 5)
March 29, 2025
***3.5 stars***
April 27, 2022
A heartfelt poetry collection that felt powerful and tragic all at once. And the way Davis is able to combine these categories into a powerful collection makes it a beautiful work of art.
March 19, 2020
He did a gallery reading yesterday at Crystal Bridges. So touching. Can't wait to dive into this!
October 28, 2020
My first book of 2020! And what a way to start the year! I'm not a huge poetry reader because I find most of it goes waaaaay over my head, but Davis is almost always understandable and his work stings in just the right place, at just the right time. The first poem made me go "Hmph!" in self-flagellation from the start.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews