The Heart of the Matter

"Begin by doing nothing." Such is the essence of any art that aims to embrace the ineffable. In these poems, John Valentine honors the quotidian and quixotic, the material and spiritual, masqueraders and mystics, human triumphs and tragedy, and the knowledge of nature and nature of knowledge. With a nod to humanity's fêtes and fates, his poetry lingers in the liminal, evoking epiphany: "The lightning strike is what we / want, everything clearer in that crystal moment of / truth."