Love's Last Number: Poems

Christopher Howell

ISBN 10: 157131475X / ISBN 13: 9781571314758

Published by Milkweed Editions, 2017

About this Item

From celebrated poet Christopher Howell, Love's Last Number is a series of musings on time's arrow: on both the relentless march that divides each moment into past, present, and future -- before and after -- and the ultimately porous and recursive nature of time itself. A soldier remembers limes and curious children in Portugal. Refugees cross a dangerous land, and find each other in love. Boy scouts play war in devastating ways, a child listens to a baseball game in a more innocent time. In this multiplicity of voices and tones, the collection reflects on what we, as humans, do about memory, love, grief, war, and the search for meaning. In its sinuous sequences, Love's Last Number insists that life -- and history -- are a continuing crisis of faith, imagination, consciousness, and moral clarity. And yet these poems, like existence itself, offer moments of transcendent joy and sudden hilarity: laughter against the darkness.

Seller Inventory # CIN157131475XG

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Love's Last Number: Poems
• Publisher: Milkweed Editions
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 157131475X
• ISBN 13: 9781571314758
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

FINALIST FOR THE UNT RILKE PRIZE

From celebrated poet Christopher Howell, Love’s Last Number is a series of musings on time’s arrow: on both the relentless march that divides each moment into past, present, and future—before and after—and the ultimately porous and recursive nature of time itself. In a multiplicity of voices and tones, Love’s Last Number reflects on what we do about memory, love, grief, war, and the contradictions implicit in the human search for meaning. At once profoundly intimate and ambitiously broad in scope, this collection explores the place of individual losses and joys in the context of greater historical tragedy and triumph.

In its sinuous sequences, Love’s Last Number insists that life—and history—are a continuing crisis of faith, imagination, consciousness, and moral clarity. And yet these poems, like existence itself, offer moments of transcendent joy and sudden, inexplicable hilarity: laughter against the darkness. 

About the Author

Christopher Howell has published ten collections of poems. He teaches at Eastern Washington University, where he is also director of Willow Springs Books, and director and principal editor for Lynx House Press. He lives in Spokane, WA.