Earth House

Hollis’s beautiful sophomore volume (after Ground Water) lyrically explores the essence of time, language, and ecology in poems about Britain and Ireland. The book is thoughtfully and effectively divided around the four cardinal points, beginning in the north, “in residue and wrack;/ the tide drawing off the asphalt.” Highlighting Hollis’s superb gift for lyricism and imagery, this section features the glorious “Stones,” which opens with “The sea is a land in waiting./ Each morning, each evening/ it turns out its pockets for the strandline:/ a starfish plaything, an unwrapped cuttle,/ some days a mermaid’s purse.” The next section moves east and contains the equally memorable “A Harnser for James”: “Gillying on Blakeney quay,/ your young hands harrying the line// as another crab gives up its grip/ for the safety of the estuary,/ and your five-year face flares with frustration/ at this world so slow to reward.” Other poems allude to Celtic and Norse myth: “when I saw the turbines// turning out to sea, I thought of Mjölnir/ whirling on its wrist of god,// or some equal engine of the uncurated earth,/ and watched the rain drag its linen over Lincolnshire.” With great sensitivity to language, Hollis reminds readers of the landscape’s ancient and renewing music. (Sept.)