Therapon

Inspired by the work of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, this atmospheric collaboration between Beachy-Quick (Variations on Dawn and Dusk) and Bond (Liberation of Dissonance) gathers near-sonnets of 12—13 lines on the self, time, death, ethics, and otherness. Each poem draws on the last; for example, “Music yes it runs away from what I ask/ an inner law a world a witness looking back” (“7:”) inspires the next poem, “Music took the single thread and tangled it/ Into a knot called mind. I didn't witness/ What happened inside me—thought, earth/ Fire. Music took the wood and planed two doors/ And sang them the law of hinges” (“:7”). The power of reading is celebrated, “Some books I love as I love my children./ In the midst of a conversation I remember/ A sentence that—like the child walking home/ From school, reciting the names of bones—/ Steps suddenly into the room,” while philosophical turns of phrase (“An act of kindness is beautiful although the form/ is formless or rather it overflows the cup it was”) make for a particularly meditative volume. This delicate and ruminative dialogue reads like one extended poetic sequence filled with unexpected and memorable phrases. (Dec.)