Dead Languages

by Clint McCown, Casey Haselden (Illustrator)

Poetry. Clint McCown's DEAD LANGUAGES seems at times to be the technicolor before-sleep musings of an everyman, examining the minutiae of everyday life and the well-known mythologies of the small town. But McCown's eye is keen, and he sees that within every throwaway gesture, every forgotten exchange and every unappreciated moment is meaning and beauty. In this collection he struggles with the dead languages in his life, the heartbreaking impossibilities of communication. With his conversational tone and blunt, sardonic wit, McCown brings the reader into a world that is not too dissimilar from his or her own, but a world more vivid, more thoughtful, both lucid and fraught with doubt.

98 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Alane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes you read the perfect book at the perfect time. Today was a very good day. Hope, loss, regret, wonder, gut-splitting determination - all here. Not too preachy. Teased me mercilessly with "Brown Recluse". Luckily I have another book by the same poet for tomorrow.