{"product_id":"patrick-pritchett-brief-mercy-of-this-life","title":"Patrick Pritchett: Brief Mercy of This Life","description":"\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePoetry as a valedictory flare \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e– written in a ghost-language, addressed to the ghosts – those who are always with us, who walk where we walk, who dwell in the whisper world, who keep us close, who bestow small, secret mercies. The shadows of the lost ones, the secret society of luminous nullity; they spell the other names for loss, for care, for nowness. Not emptiness but initiation into a new form of fullness. Kenosis as plenitude. The work of mourning that keeps alive a sliver of melancholy, a connection with the absent, the gone. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"MsoNormal\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“How is it far, if you think of it?”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSunderland\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePatrick Pritchett has been writing very good poems for a very long time. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSunderland\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, his latest, soars beyond everything he has written before … [he] is a necessary and masterful poet.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e    Christopher Sawyer-Lauçanno\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLike \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eFour Quartets\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the poems of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSunderland\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e conduct a tireless interrogation of words themselves—words as the thingness of this world—in a forlorn but strangely sustaining quest for the Word.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e    Donald Revell\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eRefrain Series\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePritchett builds the house of the poem from the “supernal longing” for love, both erotic and divine, and from the emptiness and futility of prayer, acknowledging that “nothing alone \/ will save us in the end.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e    Norman Finkelstein\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSONG X\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePritchett’s poetry approaches a pure lyricism unmatched in English poetry since Swinburne … [he] distills emotional resonances to an almost purely visionary experience — in other words, poetry as secular religion.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e    Eric Hoffman\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Bodily Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49357914046657,"sku":"","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0807\/8786\/5793\/files\/PatrickPritchett-BriefMercyofThisLifeCOVER.jpg?v=1750630253","url":"https:\/\/bodilypress.com\/products\/patrick-pritchett-brief-mercy-of-this-life","provider":"The Bodily Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}