Geometry of the Restless Herd

Cabot Black’s stunning, fable-like fourth collection (after The Exchange) urges readers, “do not expect the known; you were not there.” This unusual and poignant volume is equal parts gothic and pastoral, full of incisively written imagery characterized by sparse stanzas that allow each line to shine: “everyone wants to be near,/ To manage the animal, the range/ of the easily lost.” This sentiment is echoed again in “Almost Aubade” (“who came first/ now lost”), where absence and presence preoccupy the speaker. In the second section, Cabot Black reveals that “To be mistaken/ For another might be to survive.” Yet the poems in this collection run no risk of being mistaken for another poet’s oeuvre. Singular and striking in their movements and tone, they are a testament to delicate beauty. Cabot Black walks the tightrope between the gnomic and the visceral, and sticks the landing with the utmost skill and tenderness. (May)