An aching meditation on the cyclical nature of grief and memorys limited capacity to preserve everything time takes from usHow does one make sense of losspersonal and collective When language and memory are at capacity where do we turn Confronted with quota year meant to end all those to comequot acclaimed poet Adam Clay questions whether anything is amp8220wide enough to contain whatamp8217s left of hopeamp8221 In the absence of a clear way forward the poems of Circle Back wander griefamp8217s strange and winding path Along the way the line between reality and dreams blurs cows stare with otherworldly eyes 78s play under cactus needles a father becomes his own child and the dead become something more complicatedamp8212a amp8220sketch turned to painting left in a room dusty from lack of passing throughamp8221But amidst these liminal landscapes a amp8220thread of promiseamp8221 persists in poetry As flawed as language is we still turn to it for longevity for love like amp8220Keats sketching himself back into placeamp8221 Vulnerable and nuanced Clay details the difficult work of healingamp8212and in doing so captures those needful moments of reprieve in griefamp8217s amp8220strange circleamp8221 Two friends dashing through a sprinkler A garden of startled birds Out for a run some gray morning a sudden patch of wildflowers Circle Back is a bared heart one readers will find as thoughtful as it is tender
