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Over the Graves of Horses Michael Delp

Over the Graves of Horses, a collection of poems by Michigan writer Michael Delp, invites the reader to share in the poet's experiences of love, death, and family relationships through detailed imagery. Metaphors of water, ice, forests, fish, deer, and horses extend beyond local, "northern," or "midwest" imagery to take on universal meaning. In dealing with the central themes, Delp simultaneously conveys a sense of awe at the violence of existence and an affection for life itself. His expression of family relationships suggests that the emotional crises he writes about have been lived and survived—not just invented. Taken individually or collectively, the poems are distinctly musical. The evolving textures of themes and leitmotifs and their strategic recurrence create a complex connection that builds with each poem.

"In Over the Graves of Horses, Michael Delp minds an area owned by Rilke and Lorca, and later worked quite successfully by James Wright and Robert Bly. In his best poems, Delp approaches the success of the latter two: there is the dimension of stillness, a familiarity with beasts, the land, forest and water that is rarely seen in American Poetry. This is a wonderful collection of poems for those who are curious about a state of mind that comes even before poetry."—Jim Harrison Click here for more books by Michael Delp.

Great Lakes Books Series $24.95s cloth / ISBN 0-8143-2044-9 $15.95s paper / ISBN 0-8143-2045-7 86 pages 1988