Nothing to Declare: Poems

Nothing to Declare: Poems

<p><b>A bold collection of poems of feral beauty and intense vulnerability</b><br><b></b><br>Henri Cole's bold collection, <i>Nothing to Declare</i>, contains poems of feral beauty and intense vulnerability. Each poem starts up from its own unique occasion and is then conducted through surprising (sometimes unnerving) and self-steadying domains. The result is a daring, delicate, unguarded, and tender collection. After his last three books--<i>Touch, Blackbird and Wolf</i>, and <i>Middle Earth</i>--in which the sonnet was a thrown shape and not merely a template, Cole's buoyant new poems seem trim and terse, with a forthright, clear-eyed moral gaze. In their sorrowful richness, they combine a susceptibility to sensuousness and an awareness of desolation. Cole transforms the pain of experience into the keen pleasure of expressive language, with his precise reliability of detail, a supple wealth of sound, and a speculative truthfulness. <i>Nothing to Declare</i> is a rare work that is light in touch but with just enough weight to mark the soul.</p>