The Wild Delight of Wild Things

The evocative latest from Turner (Phantom Noise) contemplates love and personal loss in elegiac poems dedicated to his late wife, poet Ilyse Kusnetz (1966–2016). Loss lingers at the edges of lyrics that consider the natural world and the ongoing sixth mass extinction. In the first of several standout poems titled “Anna Maria Island,” Turner writes: “We are tiny oceans that have learned how to speak with one another. And to carry each other in memory.” The next section of the poem remembers, “The sun burned its slow signature into the ocean.... That something as rare as this should end in beauty. A beauty scaled to grandeur.” “Fifty-Seven Octaves Below Middle C” refers to a note “over 1.3 billion light years/ and from somewhere in the general vicinity of the Milky Way” thought to be “two black holes merging into one.” Pieces contemplating the universe and its phenomena are juxtaposed against the more local scientific advancement and duress of chemotherapy, angioplasty, MRIs, PET scans, and X-rays. These candid, tender, and beautiful poems bring a cosmic dimension to grief, while offering an affirming understanding of humanity’s shared experience. (Aug.)