After the Fall

In poems of controlled passion and energy, Kirk maps out his territory which, on the surface is domestic, but on closer examination reveals something much deeper. The poems here are as tender as they are vulnerable: lovers, children, fathers, sons, uncles - the whole gamut of family life - all are treated with compassion, and whatever questions he raises are never in a glib or easy formulation. Something has fallen and given way, and Brian Kirk's poems miraculously sift the wreckage for its poetry and human mystery.