Because he writes about what we value, Mike Maggio restores consciousness to language. His unswerving commitment to clarity makes poetry relevant as well as harmonic. Lyricism would mean nothing without the fine art of meaning; and, over time, other writers may wind down, but Mike Maggio will continue speaking with beauty, strength, and wisdom. In our poetry world, Maggio will surprise new readers who find him for the first time; and he will reassure old readers who are his fans.

In A Brief Gazelle, Mike Maggio explores the complexities of love-the joy and grief, the ephemeral and eternal, the real and surreal. Maggio masterfully integrates cinematic sensations of image and seasonal landscapes-inhabited by birds and celestial beings, flowers and trees, lakes and seas, and lovers who appear and disappear like gazelles-with a soundtrack of love songs. We hear the voices of lover and beloved expressing joy and pain, love that's lost and found, grief that never leaves, and readers identify as both the speaker of the poem and the reader.