A friend gave me this poetry collection some time ago, and I have been dipping into it a lot of late. I had not heard of Timothy Donnelly before (he is poetry editor for Boston Review), and as I read more and more of his work, I find that it creeps further and further into my sensibility, settling in some recess of my psyche where I return to it again, and again, and again.

Powerful and apposite, Donnelly’s work resonates much with my own experience of life and living.

Below is an excerpt from one poem, No Diary, from The Cloud Corporation:

‘Through the chinks of the trap door / what we call life

presents itself as a kind of task, namely that of acquiring

amid all the horrors / more of itself, but as this task is

undertaken, stepping out from its shadow, there appears

a few minutes later / another, more difficult task, namely

that of distracting one’s thoughts from the burden of

at every moment / that which one has striven to acquire.’

I am so so grateful to have been introduced to Timothy Donnelly’s work.

Thank you E…

CQ