The World Behind the World: Poems

Balancing emotional openness with formal restraint, April Bernard proves once again a poet who harmonizes the raucous and the classic, the songful and the wry, the courtly and the quick (Wayne Koestenbaum). Throughout her sixth collection, Bernard searches for the world behind the world, a spiritual realm of justice and peace, music and grace. The host of saints present in this parallel world includes poets-John Ashbery, Thomas Wyatt, Gerard Manley Hopkins-as well as folklore spirits, animals wild and domestic, and personal ghosts. Rising up from despair and grief, this powerful collection proposes a moving, personal faith.

From The Fetch Explained, More or Less

Hot-headed,
laughing, we giddy suffering creatures
barely keep pace with our fetches, who fare
into darkness before us, sharpening their teeth.