A Holy Dread

Intellectually rigorous and emotionally piercing, Villanueva’s sophomore collection (after Reliquaria) threads Greek myth, Christian iconography, and family history into a frank exploration of mortality. The poems address grief and loss from many angles—from the pain of a loved one’s death to solastalgia (distress caused by environmental change), and most vividly, mourning for the loss of safety as fascism descends upon the United States. A wrenching series of sonnets that opens the book addresses the murders of Black men by police and the devastation left behind for their loved ones and communities: “Today they are/ burning the names of the boys they are/ shooting in the street. This because we—// and they—know ashes mean undone leads/ and muzzles loosened, floodlights and flares,/ eyes doused with milk.” Elsewhere, Villanueva provides an emotional counterbalance by depicting Penelope from The Odyssey as a radiant figure, alive “among all-trembling miracles.” Throughout, Villanueva’s imagery is textured and evocative (“From the overlook// you catch fog giving way to Mt./ Baker, the egrets like knuckles/ into the mouth of the after-/ noon”). The result is a dynamic book of witness, resistance, and radical hope. (Feb.)