A fine collection by Michael Mcgriff
Home Burial by Michael McGriff
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Michael McGriff’s fine collection of seemingly autobiographical poems is well-worth spending some time with. Rich in common language and imagery, hand-wrought like the work he alludes to, and filled with imagery from nature and the land he obviously loves, there are times when the emotions seem oevrwrought—but they are rare. Surreal juxtapositions of imagery interrupt the more prosaic narratives to surreal and synaesthesiac effect.
In all there is truth in these poems that try and fail to “explain the wounded alphabet/dragging itself through the groves of ash.”