Earthly

Erica Funkhousers spirited fifth collection considers what it means to be earthly. She gives us a world in which granite foundation stones resemble "ceremonial animals, their throats unslit," and where the otherness of the real world collides with the reality of ones imagination. The central poem in the collection, "Pome," cuts into the mythos of Johnny Appleseed, the biology of apple farming, and the poets own lavishly rendered memories of growing up on a farm. The final section of the book consists of a group of sonnets written as an homage to the Holy Sonnets of John Donne -- witty, graceful poems that limn the coming into consciousness of a young poet. A departure from both Funkhousers previous historical narratives and her compressed lyrics, the wide and sweeping poems in Earthly are sure to deliver this poet her greatest recognition yet.

Erica Funkhouser is the author of four previous books of poems, including Pursuit and The Actual World. She is a lecturer in the department of writing and humanistic studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and lives in Essex, Massachusetts.