“Shawn Pittard’s new collection is awake—refreshing as cold, clear water—unflinching in its spiritual confrontations, its adoration of the quotidian world. As the speaker in the poem “Equinox” says: “This is the place astronomers call/ the circle of illumination—” Every poem strikes exactly the right balance between what is revealed and what is withheld, beginning with the amazing first poem, “Leviathan at Stinson Beach,” which has all the enduring power of a classic.”
—Susan Kelly-DeWitt, author of The Fortunate Islands
“Shawn Pittard is a master of details. He describes the natural world with the precision of a scientist: hooves, scales, colors, the daily weather, the weight of an elk’s heart. A scientist who is all Eye. But he is just as precise about himself, his feelings, desires and regrets—and fully honest. That honesty, combined with that close eye, adds up to compassion, perhaps the worthiest virtue. Read Shawn Pittard’s poems; you will come to know more about yourself.”
—James DenBoer, author of Stonework: Selected Poems and Day Moon
“I love these poems—their wild heart and meditative grace, how they grapple with God and mystery. I’m thrilled that Shawn Pittard invites me to stand alongside him as he ponders his reckonings—sorrow and scripture, sex, the beauty of fish, constellations, and current—each poem pushing me deeper into the stream.”
—Moira Magneson, author of He Drank Because
“Shawn Pittard’s poems could not be more relevant or timely in this current climate of revolt— with the world’s youth clawing their way out of a bag full of religious doctrine and oppression. Hopefully, they’ll stand in a river next to Shawn, in the morning before I could see, and feel its inexorable pull. And as the fog begins to lift, swing for steelhead in a luminous blizzard of refracted light.”
—Danyen Powell, author of Blue Sky Flies Out and Anvil
“Shawn Pittard is the author of a previous chapbook collection, These Rivers (Rattlesnake Press). His poems, essays, and book reviews have appeared in a wide variety of publications and he’s co-written a screenplay, Junk Sick, with his brother Trent. He lives with his wife Kathy in Sacramento, California, where he explores the river valley’s complex human and physical landscapes. Several times a year, he goes off the grid to his family’s cabin in the forest outside Flagstaff, Arizona.
