Night Shift

The subjects of Karen Glenn’s compelling poems vary widely, but whether she is praising night-shift workers, visiting a lab where human organs are grown in sheep, retelling myths, or describing personal experience, her deeper concern is always the yearning heart, the heart that keeps wanting, wanting/ the unnameable, the impossible. That unattainable yearning often results in loneliness, diminishment, dissatisfaction, but it is also, ultimately, evidence of hope. These deftly crafted, vivid poems are infused with intense feeling and piercing intelligence, hard-won wisdom and abundant compassion – Eric Nelson, author of Terrestrials, The Interpretation of Waking Life, and The Twins. With remarkable grace and ease, Karen Glenn hits the nail of human experience dead center. This book is refreshment for those who labor under the misperception that great poetry needs to be obscure. Like fairy tales, these poems tap into the deep reaches and bring back spun gold. –Miles Frieden, Director, Key West Literary Seminar