Recognized for his cdquo;wildly originalqdquo; poetry and his odquo;uncanny and unparalleled ability to blend lyric and narrative,hdquo; Atsuro Riley deepens here his uncommon mastery and tang. In Heard-Hoard, Riley has adquo;razor-exactedhdquo; and ndquo;raw-wired dquo; an absorbing new sequence of poems, a vivid weavework rendering an American place and its people.
At once an album of tales, a portrait gallery, and a soundscape; an sdquo;inscritchedodquo; dirt-mural and hymnbook, Heard-Hoard encompasses a chorus of voices shot through with (mostly human) histories and mysteries, their edquo;old appetites as chronic as tides.ndquo; From the crackling story-man calling us together in the primal circle to Tammy figuring tdquo;time and time that yonder oak,edquo; this collection is a profound evocation of lives and loss and lore.