Stranger: Poems

(Paperback)

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Heartbreakingly stunning. ADA LIMN

Elegant and contemplative, Adam Clays third collection of poems explores what it means for our lives to changedwelling on the moments decisions are made, and the repercussions we grow with afterward.

A move. A new job. The birth of a child. In these intimate, bewildering developmentsas familiar as the houses and ever-changing as the lakes and rivers that populate these poemsClay finds that the only map available is not of the world / but of the path I took to arrive in this place / a map with no real definable future purpose. Yet in these changes Clay reveals joy and wonder, staring into the heart of transition and finding in it the wisdom that Despite our best efforts to will it shut / the proof of the worlds existence / can best be seen in its insistence / in its opening up. Deeply rooted in beauties both domestic and wildcapturing the richest elements of the earth and the instability of a shifting skyStrangercollapses the past and the future into the lived moment, allowing for an unclouded view of a way forward.

Reviews

Praise for Stranger "Sometimes a poet stops me. Adam Clay's writing is spiritually superior to any effort I can make to describe it."--Washington Independent Review of Books "With each deliberate, rigorous, and perfect line, Stranger works itself into a heartbreakingly stunning collection dedicated to the unsung suspension of time that occurs when life suddenly goes awry."--Ada Limon "I've always thought the body to be a kind of mind and in these poems, precise lyrics detailing the most ordinary times, Adam Clay seems--or maybe it only seems he seems--to agree. In those moments when one rearranges the furniture in a room or leaves the cast-iron skillet in the oven or contemplates an ink stain on the wall, Clay finds a space for deep inquiry."--Kazim Ali "If you're the type who can't stomach small talk, Adam Clay's Stranger makes for terrific company. Refusing to placate or console his reader, Clay proves himself one of our most challenging and brilliant poets."--Cate Marvin

Author Bio

Adam Clay is the author of two previous books of poetry, The Wash (Free Verse Editions 2006) and A Hotel Lobby at the Edge of the World (Milkweed Editions 2012). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, Poetry Daily, Crab Orchard Review, Boston Review, and elsewhere. He co-edits TYPO Magazine and teaches at the University of Illinois Springfield. He lives in Illinois with his wife and daughter.