After a cancer diagnosis, the distinguished poet Stanley Plumly found himself at a midpoint—reflecting on his childhood and a rich life full of family and friends, while also facing a future shaped by the pressure of mortality. In his last collection "Middle Distance", he ventures into new territory with extended hybrid forms and revealing prose pieces. The result is the poignant culmination of a long career, a work of brave, transcendent poems that confront the impending eternal journey.
Plumly fills this collection with tender portraits of poets, family, and friends—the relationships that have supported him throughout his life—as well as relentless self-portraits. In "White Rhino", for example, he adopts the voice of "the last of his kind," using the rare animal as a canvas to depict the aging poet. In "Night Pastorals", he writes vividly and poignantly about the experience of being on the deathbed, with fragmentary impressions from the other side. In deeply lyrical narratives, Plumly reaches into a past that seems closer than ever, returning to his childhood Ohio and the shadows of a country at war. Blending documentary and memorial with his characteristic lyricism, "Middle Distance" examines at every turn the horizons of Plumly's life.
