Ruined Music

In Ruined Music the poet embraces the ruining with redemptive tenderness, fury, and humor. Divided into the four phases of any day—morning, afternoon, evening, midnight—these poems are alchemic, making of the ruin (relationships gone sour, lousy jobs, abusive religion, the burden of poverty) a testament to survival. These poems do what Nobel laureate Tomas Tranströmer said was his poetic aim: to be present, to use reality, to experience it, and to make something of it.