Early Creatures, Native Gods

Early Creatures, Native Gods follows K. A. Hays's debut collection of poetry, Dear Apocalypse (2009). As the speaker of the new collection alternately renounces and longs for faith, the landscape shifts from the cathedrals of Emilia-Romagna to the severe coastline of Lubec, Maine. Here the earth's "mindless forces" are addressed as deities: "I'm telling / you—for whom / all wars and ages / are a day's grind— / to go on grinding."