Little Town gods

Echoing across the Jordan River and back again, navigating among languages that have just walked away, L. Ward Abel's poems traverse overgrown ruins, seeing all - transforming all they see. Abel is one of those rare poets who can dig deep below where we live, down to where a "swelling without sound / meets and greets and holds on to all / that is."

David Herrle, author of ABYSSINIA and editor of SUBTLETEA.COM, says: "Ward isn't a poet of today. He writes in a no-time where the present is already dust and the dust is alive with ancient presence. This lyrical and enviably understated but profound book is off the grid, overgrown with kudzu, loamy, Gautama-silent and patient, content - and amused - that it will be outlived and buried by a wordless wisdom and 'the perfection of decay.'"