In the Middle Distance

"The poems of Gregg's eighth collection 'go back into memory... not/ because I like it, but because/ that's where the hard things are.' Over the course of 59 blunt, terse lyrics, Gregg's speaker traverses Greece, New York and Texas, ruminating over abandonment ('Women have houses now, and children./ I live alone in a kind of luxury'), family ('mother mother mother/ money money money') and the persistence of a departed lover: 'You are not even dead yet.' Along the way, she repeatedly and pointedly recasts personae from Greek myth as figures from her life — and finds them inadequate: 'I don't need Orpheus/ to sing. I walk down the esplanade at night./ I pass one loud bar after another.' Gregg's midlife reflections have an edge and voice missing from the many books with similar themes. She draws a compelling irony out of 'the pleasure in seeing/ memory through the failure/ of it,' particularly in recalling her former partner, 'filling me with memories of what/ he used to be. What the French call 'monsters.' ' This is a powerful account of facing later life on one's own, while trying to believe that 'monuments to eternity can be found, picked up, sat upon while the/ day dies.' (Mar.)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

A new and resplendent collection by Linda Gregg, whose poems "have the elegance of Greek statuary and the good-humored poise of haiku" ("Poetry")

"I finally fell in love with all of it:

dirt, silence, rock and far views.

It's strange that my heart is as full

now as my desire was then.

" --from "Arriving Again and Again Without Noticing" In one poem in this emotional and spiritual collection, Linda Gregg asks, "It is clear why love / took me to the shore of death, / but why did it bring me back?" "In the Middle Distance," Gregg's sixth book, explores up to and beyond the crossroads of devastation and desire. There, she finds not only survival but also

salvation--hard-won, resilient, and meaningful.

This collection brings Gregg's passion and intensity together with a new wisdom and vitality that is unmistakably original.A new and resplendent collection by Linda Gregg, whose poems "have the elegance of Greek statuary and the good-humored poise of haiku" ("Poetry")

"I finally fell in love with all of it:

dirt, silence, rock and far views.

It's strange that my heart is as full

now as my desire was then.

" --from "Arriving Again and Again Without Noticing" In one poem in this emotional and spiritual collection, Linda Gregg asks, "It is clear why love / took me to the shore of death, / but why did it bring me back?" "In the Middle Distance," Gregg's sixth book, explores up to and beyond the crossroads of devastation and desire. There, she finds not only survival but also

salvation--hard-won, resilient, and meaningful.

This collection brings Gregg's passion and intensity together with a new wisdom and vitality that is unmistakably original.