Staff Pick
These long poems capture modern life in its various forms — the elusive frenzy of New York, the death of a parent, the birth of a child. These allusive and moving poems (or are they essays in verse?) demand and deserve attention. Recommended By Adam P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Three Poems, Hannah Sullivan's debut collection, which won the 2018 T. S. Eliot Prize, reinvents the long poem for a digital age.
"You, Very Young in New York" paints the portrait of a great American city, paying close attention to grand designs as well as local details, and coalescing in a wry and tender study of romantic possibility, disappointment, and the obduracy of innocence. "Repeat Until Time" shifts the scene to California and combines a poetic essay on the nature of repetition with an enquiry into pattern-making of a personal as well as a philosophical kind. "The Sandpit After Rain" explores the birth of a child and death of a father with exacting clarity.