Storm Island

Poetry. Disasters uproot us, carry us along / with their flow, lock us into each other, writes Thomas R. Smith in the title poem of this abundant collection. Time and change are persistent themes throughout, whether of youthful desire or the bright salt of time that stings, yet quickens us as we age. A central sequence, Impressionist Calendar, revives the calendrical poem loved by the English Romantics, and topical poems note events as recent as the murder of George Floyd and the COVID-l9 pandemic. Over the arc of this book, Smith recognizes us all as truly 'storm-borne together on the island shaped by the disasters and opportunities of our time.