Desert Apocrypha

by Zach Hively

Winner of the 32nd Annual Reading the West Book Awards. When Zach Hively moved back to New Mexico, he found his new home not in the city but in the high desert, where things make a different sort of sense. Over two years, he wrote these five suites of poems from that place-feral and introspective, playful and mindful-and made a book that feels as analog as the desert itself. These poems "are so richly spare, so warmly restrained that metaphor replaces stone and distance as it flows from the underground as apocrypha, as products of authenticity, outside the canon, saying through him what only he can say" (V. B. Price).

Genres: Poetry

86 pages, Paperback

Published November 2, 2021

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poems in this collection reflect a whimsical curiosity, reverence for nature and ultimately, heart. Plus, the author loves dogs:

..."the dog barks at threats
I will never understand
because he keeps them at bay - "...

Another few stanzas:

"I like to hope that
when I die, my questions
will perch
around me like
all the books I never read,

like all the crows
with all their opinions
and questions of their own"...

[Noam Levinsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really beautiful poems. Made me miss and cherish my time in the southwest. Hivelys detailed attention to the desert, paired with sparse language and introspective richness is beautiful. I like how simple to poetic forms are.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great simple pleasures in life is stumbling across a gem of a book.

[Bea Krauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this poetry book, especially the poems about rain in the desert. The book is rain in the desert. Needed that.