And Short the Season: Poems

And Short the Season: Poems

<p><strong>From the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet, a stunning collection of poems that course with the rhythms of nature.</strong></p> A poet of piercing revelations and arresting imagery, Kumin is "unforgettable, indispensable" (<em>New York Times Book Review</em>). In <em>And Short the Season</em> she muses on mortality: her own and that of the earth. Always deeply personal, always political, these poems blend myth and modernity, fecundity and death, and the violence and tenderness of humankind. <p>From "Whereof the Gift Is Small"</p><p><em>And short the season, first rubythroat<br /> in the fading lilacs, alyssum in bloom,<br /> a honeybee bumbling in the bleeding heart<br /> on my gelding’s grave while beetles swarm<br /> him underground. Wet feet, wet cuffs,<br /> little flecks of buttercup on my sneaker toes,<br /> bluets, violets crowding out the tufts<br /> of rich new grass the horses nose<br /> and nibble like sleepwalkers held fast―<br /></em>brittle beauty<em>―might this be the last?</em></p>