The tiny particles of sand in the title of this poetry collection provide a patina of humility over it. Sand is subject to waves of power that wash over it. It shifts, and settles, and survives. These are nature poems. “According to Sand is a book to subsist on. Line by supremely original line, it illuminates – and is illuminated by – ‘the fleeting infinities’ of the natural world, of which we are a miniscule (see: sand grain) but luminous part. Moeckel is an utterly necessary poet at the top of his form, as fully manifested as a trillium in full bloom.” Chris Dombrowski. The poet, Thorpe Moeckel, teaches creative writing at Hollins College and lives near Roanoke, Virginia. This is his eighth book. He was raised in Atlanta and worked as a guide on Appalachian rivers and trails in his late teens and early twenties and still roams there incessantly.
Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2022. 63 pages. Trade paperback.