A Duration

A DurationDescription Reviews In the poem essays that comprise A Duration (one part of a two part volume including A Companion), writing is a physical act where writing and lived experience support one another in bodiesanimal, plant, mineral, and word bodiesthat are injured and heal, that die and continue in new forms, playing new roles. Here, in his fifth book, Richard Meier transmutes years of daily practices of attentionbe it to a line spoken by Lears Fool,

seemingly so spontaneous

which is God’s

is so ambitious

thoughtful pieces

without sounding like a throwback full of archaisms or faux wit

and an intriguing

and Alexander the Great

In a flurry of ideas

complementing this lyrical true story of the joy of new love and friendship

So rarely can syntax catch the heart off guard

Katie Berta

and spiritually with Lax’s friends and contemporaries like Merton and Reinhardt