The Whole by Contemplation of a Single Bone

In this, her second collection of poetry, Nancy K. Pearson explores the possibilities of recovery and transformation in a world where “words cease to matter.” The speaker attempts to reconcile the past—a past shadowed by depression, addiction, and misdiagnosis. Pearson refuses to end in a place of relief, asking, “[D]on’t we all / fall into aggregate darkness / for something?” Instead, her poems meditate on the lyric of absence and fragmentation. Pearson’s poems are restless, unsettling, and revelatory.