American Wake (Paperback)

"The poems, plainspoken distillations of origins and loss, explore histories, teasing at what we know without knowing, and know without remembering we know. A book of quiet, watchful radiance."--The Boston Globe "Must-read poetry."--The Millions New from a poet whose astonishing images, emotional honesty, and storytelling power hold a singular clarity of vision. "American Wake navigates loss with such unparalleled sensitivity and inventiveness that language becomes its own jubilant force of survival."--Major Jackson An "American wake" is what the Irish call a farewell to those emigrating to the United States. A New England poet equally at home in Ireland, Kerrin McCadden explores family, death and grief, apologies, and all manner of departures. In the poem "In the Harbor," McCadden writes: When we are out to sea, we look back to see faces ringing the shore like a fence, those we love in up to their hips in waves, waving goodbye like mad. Included in American Wake are the poems, "My Br