The Lyrics

The Lyrics records the days of one seeking knowledge through movement and contingent images—a monastery, a motel, an Irish coastal river—all the while conscious of political and class warfare, of being American, of the need to know the difference (if there is one) between good and evil. Each poem is a lament formed in a place of rest, asking: can we get beyond this and still be? The Lyrics is the new work by an intense and vital poet.

Praise for On the Ground:

“This is a book that teaches us to be ecstatic about poetry; in it we hear the frayed and difficult passages of our thought and place as humans, our restive worry and our longing for peaceful cohabitation with all others. On the Ground is an essential book for our times.” —Judges’ Citation, Griffin International Poetry Prize Finalist

“Simultaneously tender, political, lyrical and global in scope, this set of short sequences from Howe has at its core the belief that love plays a redemptive role at all scales of interaction, giving intense force to grapplings with intimacy.” —Publishers Weekly