Grace, Fallen from

Illuminating poetry that quiets and startles and troubles

Publishers Weekly

Boruch's superb instinct for the structure of free verse and her fine eye for daily life have won her national respect: this first outing since Poems: New and Selected(2004) confirms those strengths. Many of the poems here imitate the visual arts-one is titled "Still Life"; the poem "Ladder Against a House" aspires to a photograph, while "Seven Aubades for Summer" incorporates a daily record of outdoor scenes. Boruch's best moments combine disarming observation with abstraction and quiet humor: touring a zoo, she declares, "In this saddest of worlds, think/ lunch!And an ocean of hope/ rides over us." Few readers will come away unimpressed by the supple care Boruch takes in depicting her everyday scenes. And yet there are few surprises. (Feb.)

MARIANNE BORUCH is the author of five previous collections, including Descendant (1989) and Poems: New and Selected (2004), and was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets. For two decades, she has taught in the MFA Program at Purdue and semi-regularly in the non-residential program at Warren Wilson College.