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Made in Michigan Writers SeriesEarth AgainPoems by Chris DombrowskiThe second full-length collection from award-winning poet ChrisDombrowski, Earth Again transports readers to an imaginative worldwhere identity is explored and expanded. With a mixture of long poemsand shorter pieces, Dombrowski probes birth, death, sex, memory,and our blessed but treacherous engagement with the natural world.While he writes from a number of points of view and employs bothmale and female speakers, much of the collection’s singular insightcenters around masculine identity and being a husband and a father.Readers come away transformed, “like the land / gasping as it doeseach late winter evening when / the sky at tree line, nearly sapphiric,goes black,” as these poems prove Dombrowski to be a truly originalAmerican voice.Comprised of three sections—each of which concludes with a long poem—Earth Again presents a rangeof narrative and emotions in dexterous rhythms, unexpected shifts, and unforgettable metaphors.Dombrowksi introduces readers to arresting images like “the parataxis of her ass,” “cerulean, alchemicallight,” “Molly with the sun in her mouth,” and “labyrinthine, lanky-stemmed, dew-magnified” leaves.These details combine with Dombrowski’s note-perfect language, which alternates between the mostcolloquial and the most elevated of diction. Readers will be challenged to consider spirituality alongsideScooby-Doo Band-aids, and to meditate on death after the mower has chewed up a plastic dinosaur, asDombrowski revels in exploring our connection to the environment and one another.Fans of Dombrowski’s previous collection, By Cold Water (which was noted as a contemporary poetrybestseller by the Poetry Foundation in 2009), along with other poets and poetry lovers will appreciatethe attention to detail and the imaginative intensity of the poems in Earth Again.2013 / 6.5 x 8 / 96 pp / ISBN 978-0-8143-3729-5, $15.95t paperISBN 978-0-8143-3730-1 eMade in Michigan Writers SeriesPracticing to Walk Like a HeronPoems by Jack RidlIn Practicing to Walk Like a Heron multiple-award-winning Michigan poetJack Ridl shares lines of well-earned wisdom in the face of a constantlychanging world. The familiar comforts of life—a warm fire in winter, a lushgarden in summer—become the settings for transcendent and universaltruths in these poems, as moments of grief, sadness, and melancholytrigger a deeper appreciation for small but important joys. The simpleclarity of Ridl’s lines and diction make the poems accessible to all readers,but especially rewarding for those who appreciate carefully honed,masterful verse.Many of the poems take solace in nature—quiet deer outside in thewoods, deep snow, a thrush’s empty nest in the eaves—as well as manmadethings in the world—a steamer trunk, glass jars, tea cups, and books piled high near an easy chair.Yet Ridl avoids becoming nostalgic or romantic in his surroundings, and shows that there is nothingeasy in his celebration of topics like “The Letters,” “But He Loved His Dog,” “A Christmas List for Santa,”and “The Enormous Mystery of Couples.” An interlude of full-color pages divides Ridl’s more personalpoems with a section of circus-themed pieces, adding visions of elephants, trumpets, tents, sequins, andsideshows, and the uniquely travel-weary perspectives of jugglers, trapeze artists, roustabouts, and clowns.Practicing to Walk Like a Heron unabashedly affirms the quirky and eccentric, the small and mundane,and the intellectual and experiential in life. This relatable and emotionally powerful volume will appealto all poetry readers.2013 / 6 x 9 / 176 pp / 1 illus / ISBN 978-0-8143-3453-9, $17.95t paperISBN 978-0-8143-3539-0 eMade in Michigan Writers Series38Wayne State University Press regional Books