Why Speak?: Poems

"A smart and powerful debut."—Library Journal

A debut collection, exhibiting exceptional narrative and lyrical gifts, that explores the realms of memory, human emotion, and the natural world.

These layered, braided narratives combine images of landscape and nature, childhood memories and family history, evoked paintings and performances. Nathaniel Bellows's verse is intimate yet inviting, dark but hopeful: "I could not saw the fallen tree—not all / of it had fallen—because somehow each spring, / the rotted half still mysteriously bloomed."