Description

If the World Becomes So Bright is a powerful new collection from accomplished Michigan poet Keith Taylor. In an approachable, intimate, and contemplative voice, Taylor’s poems offer quiet observation of the landscapes the poet encounters. His poems reflect a Romantic sensibility and a modern inventiveness as he travels from Michigan to Cape Hatteras to the Irish countryside and moves in reflection from uncritical observation to self-questioning to exultations of gratitude and peace. The world—however small and immediate—becomes bright in this collection, as Taylor’s careful lines trace our connections with the mundane but important details of our lives, details found in the natural environment, with family members, and in our daily habits.

If the World Becomes So Bright is filled with the fauna and flora of Michigan wilderness, even when that wilderness is no farther away than the backyard. Taylor explores picturesque settings like Isle Royale in the Upper Peninsula, the waters of Lake Michigan, and his home in Ann Arbor, as well as settings that are a world away, all with a reverent and careful eye. He also trains the same studied observation on his inner world as he wrestles with the meanings of everyday occurrences, like visiting a deserted churchyard, following the migrations of birds through his yard, and watching his daughter grow up. Taylor’s voice throughout is insightful and curious, always thankful, and sometimes self-deprecating, sharing lessons while reflecting on all that is left to learn.

Readers will recognize in If the World Becomes So Bright not only a real and familiar speaker but also universal themes of insecurity, deliberation, and discovery. General readers of poetry, as well as fans of Taylor’s other work, will enjoy If the World Becomes So Bright.

Author(s)

Keith Taylor is the author of numerous books, including Guilty at the Rapture and a co-translation of Battered Guitars: The Poetry and Prose of Kostas Karyotakis. He is coordinator of undergraduate creative writing at the University of Michigan and director of the Bear River Writers Conference.

Reviews

“Taylor’s poems are solid, seasoned and honest, unafraid to wander off-path or ask the same old questions. His lines feel like they rise from years of reading and thinking—of pressing an ear to poetry’s heart and listening closely.

— METROTIMES

“Here is the man at home in the world: husband, father, naturalist—monkish, bookish, freighted with desire, wary of end times, wondrous at the neighborhood apocalypses. Here is Keith Taylor—one of our best—at his very best. Bravo! Bravo, Maestro!”

— Thomas Lynch

“Sometimes—all too rarely—one enters a book of poems and trusts, at once, the wisdom and the tact that govern it. Keith Taylor's is such a book. The volume of Livy, the child in her playpen, the gun—yes, even the gun—in the teenager's mouth become a kind of blessing in these poems, insisting that the world is here, is real, is lit with its own fleetingness, is far larger than we are. I keep hoping if I linger in these pages long enough, some portion of the wonderful attentiveness to be found here will rub off on me.”

— Linda Gregerson

“Sitting down with these poems is like being snowed in up north, glad to have enough wood for the wood stove, glad to be hanging out with this voice, one who tells a story, records a meaningful moment, notes a poignant or rueful anecdote all with authentic lyricism and complexity of tone.”

— Jack Ridl

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