Synopsis "The Name Museum"
Poetry. In his stunning new book THE NAME MUSEUM, Nick McRae reminds us that every name is, finally, a museum, an elegy, a narrative, and that all narrative becomes translation of place--and the collective voice of place--sometimes 'mythic, bloody as a psalm.' McRae's formal control always certain, ever graceful, these poems fuse harshness, longing, loss, spirituality, and beauty with the 'sweat and rapture' of the very best poetry.--Claudia Emerson The hard evidence we gather from history and local lore, from tradition and experience, determines what we believe--or so we are inclined by logic to believe. And yet we linger more over the truths that defy belief. It is a strange paradox but one Nick McRae finds everywhere he trains his vision. An email from God, an homage to a one-armed barber, snakes and trucks, saints and prophets: this is the grist of a wonderful book of poetry, half apocalypse and half love-song. It is also the work of a young poet skilled in his craft and clearly devoted to his art.--Maurice Manning
