Braving the Elements
Darkness series book 2

Then when the flame forked like a sudden path I gasped and stumbled, and was less. Density pulsing upward, gauze of ash, Dear light along the way to nothingness, What could be made of you but light, and this? - Log, pg. 3 * * * The panes flash, tremble with your ghostly passage Through them, an x-ray sheern......more

So I bought this book because I loved how it smell. Deep in its spine remains the smell of the trees that built these pages and made its words shine. There is also the sturdy cloth cover that delights my hands as I hold the book and take a whiff of what's inside. James Merrill's reputation is that of......more

I resisted Merrill for a long time, thanks to the whole 'major experimental poem dictated by spirits from the netherworld via a Ouija board' thing. Then a friend, whom I greatly respect, said (or at least implied) that I should read Merrill. Well, it took a while, but I got around to it. And my resp......more

Who's a better 20th Century post-war poet than Merrill?......more