Shoptaw, John: Near-Earth Object

Unbound Edition Press, paperbackPublication Date: April 23, 2024Publisher Marketing: In the poems of Near-Earth Object, John Shoptaw explores the interactions, sometimes dark and sometimes joyful, between humans and the non-human natural world. Resisting the human exceptionalism that in its many forms blocks our imaginative access to the world, Shoptaw entertains the perspectives of a host of others: a cricket, a bat, a nuthatch, a carnival bear, a tree's shade, cherubim, an asteroid, and — in the long poem "Whoa!" (an allegory of climate change based on the myth of Phaethon) — Earth herself. His descriptions bring to bear knowledge drawn from many sources (life and physical sciences, poetry, philosophy, conversations) as well as his own attentive experience of the world (birds at the feeder, creek-side fox squirrels, Pacific harbor seals). Along with these shifting viewpoints and scales, the poems assume various forms: anaphoric verse, poulter's measure, a seasonal "qua