If Mercy

Poetry. Frannie Lindsay’s elegant fifth collection is simultaneously elegiac and celebratory, a tribute to both ‘gone things’ and the beautiful that remains. Her primary subjects are human, old and diminished and dying; but her expansive vision encompasses the animal and reaches toward the divine, says Martha Collins. Terrence Hayes adds, Here praise is shaped by the fearlessness and fineness that constitute grace. Indeed, Lindsay’s astonishing poetry is synonymous with grace. Here is a beautiful book from one of our very best contemporary poets.