Worship the Pig

Worship the Pig, Gaylord Brewers eleventh collection, is by the poets own definition his Americas book. The migration begins from his Tennessee home to the Inside Passage of Alaska, then detours sharply south in a return to his beloved Costa Rica, then onward finally to the qualified paradise of Brazils Ilhabela. Brewers persistent obsessionstranslating the call and challenge of the feral world, negotiating some truce with private ghostshave never been more poignantly and sharply drawn. From chiseled lyrics to more expansive narrativesby turns reserved and raucous, always heartfelt and rivetingthese new poems exhilarate. No schematic for conquest, / no reckless conclusions, // no tenuous argument for connection / beyond the simple truth / of what accrues together. At mid-career, the author called the most natural poet in the country by the Asheville Poetry Review continues to astonish.