by Maxwell King
First published 2010
The narrator moves through landscapes both familiar and changed, where coal dust settles on mountain laurel and family memories surface like stones in a creek bed. King places his speaker at the intersection of loss and belonging, where each poem becomes a way of measuring distance between what was and what remains. The collection follows a man taking inventory of his connections to place and kin, finding both sorrow and reasons for gratitude in the same moments. These verses map the territory between mourning and acceptance, where understanding yourself means recognizing the forces that shaped you. The emotional weight comes from King's ability to find meaning in small observations about home.
24 pages · Paperback · Autumn House Press