Reign of Snakes

Described by the late James Dickey as "one of the finest new poets to come along in years," Robert Wrigley fulfills that early promise with this, his newest collection. Reign of Snakes is a book about desire, the soul's desire as much as the body's. As Jane Hirshfield said of Wrigley's previous book, In the Bank of Beautiful Sins (Penguin, 1995), "To read it is to unpeel a little further into the human, and into the wideness that holds the human--a splendid gift." Reign of Snakes takes us to yet another level, deep into the daily devotions, "where the dark blows a kiss to night."

. . . a frigid day in February and a full-grownrattlesnake curled to a comma in the middle of the middle of the just-plowed road. Ice ghost, I think, curve of rock or stubbed-off branch. But the diamonds are there, under a dust of crystals looming, impossible, summer's tattoo, the mythical argyle of evil.

--from "Reign of Snakes"

Reign of SnakesPart One: The Afterlife
Why Do the Crickets Sing?
Dark Forest
Hoarfrost
Flies
Sad Moose
Part Elegy
Art
Having Heard the Moon
Open Grave

Part Two: Amazing Grace
The Pumpkin Tree
Lessons
Movies
The Theory and Practice of Fables
The Knowing
After the Flood
The Burned Cemetery
Wanting God
Our Father

Part Three: Meditation at Bedrock Canyon
Reign of Snakes

Part Four: Night Music
Ice Fishing
Prey
More Rain
Peace
Arrowhead
Nostalgia
Bodies
Prayer for the Winter
Conjure

Envoy: The Name

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.