A Memory of the Future Poems [Hardcover]

Sprinkled with philosophical inquiries and Zen koans like that of the title, Spires's contemplative sixth collection opens with delicious wordplay.All the distinguishing characteristics weve come to associate with Elizabeth Spires poemstheir shimmering clarity, verbal restraint, and self-interrogationsare enacted in this new work of meticulous surfaces and surprising depths&Spires consuming subjectthe fluidity of time set against the immutable presence of deathis approached with Zen-sparked simplicity: As one grows older, / there should be fewer / and fewer words to say. Yet those few words, as set down inWith insatiable imagination, subtle music, stark candor, an ingenious sense of play, and an all-encompassing vision, Elizabeth Spires builds poem after poem revealing world within word within world. Her subject is nothing less than the feral innocence and courage of a poised / and ready soul in search of meaning, open to ebullient joy and harrowing loss&Discovering grandeur in miniature, alighting on a mortals fleeting moment in a sublime landscape, Spires enlarges the possibilities of lyric.Zen-infused meditations on the limitations of memory, mortality, and the boundaries of human existence.