Turned Earth: Poems

"Turned Earth, the title of New Orleans poet Brad Richard's fifth collection, evokes an array of suggestive images and experiences: the turned earth of a garden bed or a grave; Earth turning through seasons and years; earth as material shaped or crafted, as on a potter's wheel; turning earth as metaphor for thought and reflection; and the sense of 'turned' as meaning 'spoiled,' our Anthropocene crisis never far from the poet's mind. Haunted by his mother and her own thwarted dreams of becoming a poet, the speaker meditates on grief while seeking out joy in all its forms"