In Geometry of the Restless Herd, Sophie Cabot Black stages a powerful allegory for the social and political realities of our human world. Through hauntingly metaphysical poems set within a sheepherder’s domain, Black conjures fields of harvest and resurrection, of wagers and outcomes—animals to keep, and those to send to slaughter. Here, both singular voices and polyvocal choruses ask, Who has the real power, and how are we to survive the violence we do to one another?
ISBN: 9781556596926
Format: Paperback
Reviews
“Form and content collude symphonically in Black’s lean, laconic poems. From catalog verse and aphorism, to persona poems in the voices of animals, language emerges as a co-creationary power. . . . The thrust of Geometry of the Restless Herd, while taking account of our straying, incomplete, and changeling natures, is toward revelation.” —Virginia Konchan, Harriet Books, Poetry Foundation
“I was not expecting a book of pastoral poems centered around sheep herding to be so scathing, fiery, and politically eloquent.”—Lily Naifeh-Bajorek, Poetry Society of America
“Black lays out a measured exploration of recent politics and inner turmoil in her latest collection. The poems vary from philosophical arguments to allegory rooted in a plot of farmland. In tight stanzas Black carefully frames her imagery. . . . Much like a moving and ferocious natural landscape, Black’s poems stir a progression of observations and emotions.”—Michael Ruzicka, Booklist