Circle Back: Poems

Adam Clay's collection of poems, "Circle Back," explores the cyclical nature of grief and the limited capacity of language and memory to preserve everything that time takes from us. The poems wander through liminal landscapes, blurring the line between reality and dreams, and depict the difficult work of healing and moments of reprieve in grief's "strange circle." The collection is vulnerable and nuanced, offering readers a thoughtful and tender exploration of loss.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 96 pages
Publication date: 25 April 2024
Publisher: Milkweed Editions

An aching meditation on the cyclical nature of grief and memory's limited capacity to preserve everything time takes from us.

How does one make sense of loss—personal and collective? When language and memory are at capacity, where do we turn? Confronted with "a year meant to end all / those to come," acclaimed poet Adam Clay questions whether anything is "wide enough to contain whats left / of hope." In the absence of a clear way forward, the poems of Circle Back wander grief's strange and winding path. Along the way, the line between reality and dreams blurs: cows stare with otherworldly eyes, 78s play under cactus needles, a father becomes his own child, and the dead become something more complicated—a "sketch turned to painting / left in a room dusty from / lack of passing through."

But amidst these liminal landscapes, a "thread of promise" persists in poetry. As flawed as language is, we still turn to it for longevity, for love, like "Keats, / sketching himself back into place." Vulnerable and nuanced, Clay details the difficult work of healing—and in doing so, captures those needful moments of reprieve in grief's "strange circle."

Two friends dashing through a sprinkler. A garden of startled birds. Out for a run some gray morning: a sudden patch of wildflowers.

Circle Back is a bared heart, one readers will find as thoughtful as it is tender.

Weight: 130g
Dimension: 139 x 216 x 8 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781639550982