Harm: Poems: Western Literature and Fiction Series

“Memory’s deposit is my only asset now,” says the narrator of Miles Wilson’s wrenching poetry collection. These are fiercely honest poems about how a man’s life can meander through pain and indiscretion, anger and bitterness; how it can express itself in rage and pungent wit and find a kind of healing in the natural world of mountains and trout streams. Wilson’s meditations range from the perils of a firefighter’s life in the forests of the West to the domestic agonies of a marriage gone wrong, to the resonances between wild nature and the flawed human spirit, and to the wisdom found in the restorative powers of ravaged forests. His language is powerful, his images rich and varied, and the layered connections between personal experience and moral complexity completely engaging.