Come Down to Earth: Poems

Winner of the May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize (2013)

In a rhythmic collection of a myriad of styles, Nils Michals compiles a book which presents a haunted version of human consciousness, eager to transcend its earthly realm. Filled with distinct styles and unique language, Michals demonstrates his prowess by contemplating our world as we know it—with a drastic re-imaginings. The speaker breaks down all the personal walls of contemporary poetry, incorporating second-person narratives and distant point-of-views. The poet accomplishes the essential task of taking from the ordinary and creating the extraordinary in his observations of nature, news, and everyday life.

Come Down to Earth is a carousel of emotions. All of poetry’s past is present in Michals’s book: love, death, pain, happiness, reality, sublime, confessional, and dozens more. Through the exploitation of the human mind and its relation to the earth, there is a substantial, universal truth in Michals’s writings. His subtle honesty emanates through outlandish language and style, and speaks to every human being who has experienced life first-hand.