Occupations

The poems in Chris Jenningss long-awaited debut poetry collection are linked at their core by a preoccupation with the ways objects or moments become charged with meaning. Narrative occupies the territory of memory, making the most ordinary thingsa classified ad, the odds and ends of an estate auction, graffiti, an antique lancet, a vegetable standtouchstones and reliquaries of other lives. Sometimes reserved, sometimes exploring what a poet can do with excess, Jennings moves fluidly between objective detachment, quiet intimacy and the tone of a cynic in a sentimental mood.