Army of Giants

In his meditative ninth collection, Rohrer (The Others) reflects with infectious wonder on the most important things in life—among them family, books, and natural and human-made landscapes. He captures the gray ennui of deep winter—“Dingy February I pass/ through it like curtains”—and the subtle, surreal horrors of the grocery store: “all the former live things/ arranged in cold pyramids.” The final section, “Army of Poets,” features homages to some of his influences, including Lewis Warsh, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, and Anna Akhmatova. While Rohrer’s irreverent tone is often charming, reader mileage will vary on how the ode to Akhmatova toggles between Rohrer’s drunken memories of a doomed relationship from his youth and details of the Russian poet’s persecution by the state. In contrast, “For a Farrier” makes palpable the speaker’s kind veneration for his fellow creatures: “Reading a kind of laborious/ poem about rural things/ and a horse is shot/ for breaking its leg./ I still don’t get it./ Surely there’s a way/ to heal a horse.” In these ruminative pages, Rohrer demonstrates a sensitivity to the world and a talent for capturing great joy and sorrow. (Oct.)