Notes for a Praise Book

by Jeff Hardin

An “advocate of letting things lean as they must,” Jeff Hardin does not shy from the realities of a changing world, each poem “the gist of the gist,” that precise and graceful a rendering. Of course there is sorrow in Hardin’s awareness of the present slipping into the past, into “a field gone dark with itself.” And there is beauty, too—as Hardin shows us—in the inevitability of “a compass pointing here / and nowhere else.” Notes for a Praise Book is the welcome new work of a wise and generous poet.

Claudia Emerson

Genres: Poetry

Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Bret M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Visceral gems from a promising Tennessee writer. Hardin's stories of his difficult upbringing are sparse, McCarthy-style recollections wrung through a poet's filter. They sting like a bull-whip. There is tenderness, but you have to dig for it. One to watch & highly recommended.