"<i>Joyful Orphan</i> is skilled, masterful work."—Sherwin Bitsui, Navajo writer and poet, author of <i>Flood Song</i><br /><br />"This collection is a deft and elegant lyric address, beautifully inclusive, to all the issues now of greatest concern."—Donald Revell, professor of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and author of <i>The English Boat</i><br /><br />"<i>Joyful Orphan</i> a beautiful book of poems that, while quiet and often domestic, have a long, larger view."—Sasha Steensen, professor of English, Colorado State University, and author of <i>House of Deer</i><br /><br />"<i>Joyful Orphan</i> raises the question of belonging, and chooses the position of the orphan, who in Mark Irwin's ecstatic poems, finds home everywhere. Who goes farther than that?"—Claudia Keelan, professor of English, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, editor of <i>Interim</i>, and author of eight collections of poetry, including <i>We Step into the Sea</i>
Excerpt from "Letter"
Times when we touch hope like the hem of a cloud
just as when we touch a body or door, or think
of the dead come back, romancing
us through the warp of memory, lighting a way
by luring . . .
- Contents
- I. Go
- Goes
- Vertigo
- Balloon
- The Dead
- Light
- Letter
- Alive
- Couple
- Blue, Red
- Notre-Dame of Paris, 2019
- Story
- Livestream
- Tree, River
- Hover
- The Life
- II. Home
- Was into Space
- Holiday
- Edges
- Joyful Orphan
- Ash
- The smaller house
- Arrival
- How long?
- Library of Water
- 3D
- Family
- Why—
- We
- Faces
- Hungry
- Radiance
- Wilderness
- Bright in June Sun
- III. Wild
- Nike of Samothrace
- Legend
- All the tiny arrows
- Just once
- Gift
- Livestream
- English
- Plaster of Paris
- Spring, 2020
- Nearer
- Variation on a Phrase by Dickinson
- Trailer for a Movie not yet Made
- 1937 Indian Head Nickel
- La liberté libre
- Thirst
- Pinprick
- Three Panels
- Yet
- Refrain
- Notes
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author