Swamp candles

In his convincing and highly accomplished fifth book, Ralph Burns draws on his deep practice and experience. His tones, forms, and subjects are various and striking, the work of a poet mature and courageous enough to range through the full spectrum of his emotions.

Sometimes Burns is haunted by the strength and fallibility of the Christian tradition, and in many of his poems he explores the conflicts between individuals and the larger world - the mystery and responsibility of choice, consequence and inconsequence, "the terror of being taken."