Lives of the Animals

Lives of the Animals takes us to that place where the boundaries between predator and prey, the observer and the observed, merge, reverse, become re-imagined. We find ourselves inside a story of death and life, witness to acts of survival so primal they seem less instinctive than passionate. And it is passion that most informs these poems: the bond between lovers, between parent and child, between humans and other animals, both wild and domestic, that populate our shared world of hunger and need.Lives of the AnimalsThe Other World
Horse
Elk Dreams
At the Beach
Explanatory
Do You Love Me?
Myopia
Discretion
Poor Animals
Later That Day

Washing My Face
Fish Dreams
Affirmations
Is an Abandoned Orchard
Thatcher Bitchboy
Mummy of a Mouse
Quiet Night
Bridge
Anecdotal Fencepost
Clemency
Lives of the Animals

After the Coyotes' Song
Horseflies
Following Snakes
Snake in the Trough
Swallows
Highway 12, Just East of Paradise, Idaho
Progress
Winter Bale
Caffeine
Agency

Kissing a Horse
"Dog"
Northern Lights
The Afterlife of Moose
The Church of Omnivorous Light
In Time
Sweetbreads
Mercy
Helpful
Bear Dreams
Breaking Trail

Robert Wrigley is a recipient of numerous grants and fellowships. His sixth and most recent book, Lives of the Animals, won the 2004 Poets’ Prize.