{"product_id":"the-grace-of-distance-poems-9780807170762","title":"The Grace of Distance: Poems","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Matthew Thorburn\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: LSU Press\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: LSU Press\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Subjects \u0026amp; Themes - Places\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the Inside Flap\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Matthew Thorburn's considerable poetic gifts bring the actual world joyfully alive in these poems. But this isn't simple joy; it's joy in conversation with the mounting losses and complexities of middle age. 'I can't remember, ' he writes, 'if I've only just arrived \/ or it's time for me to go.' In his ekphrastic poem about \u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eGirl with a Pearl Earring\u003c\/i\u003e (painted in Vermeer's middle age), Thorburn writes, 'Vermeer did \/\/ what we all want to do: make time stop \/ so we can see.' And that is what this book succeeds, beautifully, in doing--stopping time so we can see.\"--Leslie Harrison, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Endings\u003c\/i\u003e, a finalist for the National Book Award \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Matthew Thorburn's book \u003ci\u003eThe Grace of Distance\u003c\/i\u003e celebrates the quiet moments that pass between people. He writes, '[A] phrase--that's all I'm after... \/ that catches the quiet hopefulness \/ of such careful documenting.' Like Vermeer's paintings, Thorburn's graceful poems reach across the distance that divides us all to say, 'We were here. This is what life was like once. \/ Not bad.' In our age of crisis, this is news that will stay news.\"\u003cbr\u003e--Tomás Q. Morín, author of \u003ci\u003ePatient Zero \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"In his elegant new collection of poems, \u003ci\u003eThe Grace of Distance\u003c\/i\u003e, Matthew Thorburn mines the lyric possibilities of mid-life in loss and love and aliveness. Curiosity fuels insight in keen observations like: 'Did you know one pharaoh \/ had his heart wrapped in cloth \/ and placed in a little wooden box \/ when he died? Who wouldn't \/ sometimes wish to set your heart \/ aside and close that lid?' This poet's lyric distances are dreamy and worldly, wise and full of surprises.\"--Elaine Sexton, author of \u003ci\u003eProspect\/Refuge\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LSU Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":45117398646935,"sku":"9780807170762","price":1435.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780807170762.webp?v=1767900737","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/the-grace-of-distance-poems-9780807170762","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}