Forth a Raven

“Davis brings a psychological acuity and a mythic, laconic approach (reminiscent sometimes of Louise Gluck) to a spare universe of ravens, mountains and purgatorial reminiscences….a head-turning debut.” —Publishers Weekly “The poems in this first collection from Davis…are taut and spare and show an obvious love of language. A fine, compelling collection.” —Library Journal “Christina Davis sends forth a wild bird in her magical first collection, and it carries messages that are at once oracular, urgent, and utterly authentic. She has inscribed a true book of mysteries.” —Edward Hirsch “These poems are so bright they hurt: urgent and necessary, they explode and shatter into original wholeness, reclaiming for Soul its own language—fierce, challenging, and spare. This is a book Emily would have kept by her bedside. About it, she might have said, ‘Here is a newness in the wind to trouble your attention.'” —Susan Mitchell “In the oddity and rightness of these poems, it’s ‘As if there were just one/of each word, and the one/who used it, used it up.’ Out of this economy, the voice that emerges—rueful like Dickinson, wryly charming like Szymborska—pushes the boundaries of contemporary lyric by being both runic and absolutely clear.” —Tom Sleigh