Talking in the Dark: Poems

210 x 140 mm. 96pp ... [In stock in Australia, for immediate delivery]

'Because he is a true poet, [McNair's] New England is unlimited. Whole lives fill small lines, real to this poet and real to us' - Donald Hall, Harvard Book Review

In his fifth collection, one of New England's most respected poets brings us the inhabitants of his region as they struggle to contend with life's darknesses: housewives in night school; a tractor-tinkering stepfather who rescues an outdated encyclopaedia from the town dump; a boy at bedtime who, entranced by a woman's voice on a slowing turning phonograph, listens 'to her fall/ fast asleep/ with the needle/ at her throat'.

How McNair's characters talk about their difficulties - or why they can't - is central to this volume, as are meditations in which the poet speaks directly to the reader about the trials and affirmations of human experience. Whether a homage to 'Old Cadillacs' or reflections on 'Why We Need Poetry', these poems demonstrate McNair's ability to tell a life in a line and to disclose the knowledge of the heart.
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