A Farm Under Poplars

In this, his fourth book of poems, Patrick Todd reveals powers of recall that match exactly his will both to face and to reassure "things that never leave the mind," the authentic dramas of memory and intention. Like Philip Levine, he shows how memory erupts at unexpected moments, aroused by the changing artifacts of time and circumstance, and how the dignity of common labor must be rescued from despair. Deftly folding image into image, Todd shows us how, through clarity, we may come to understand the unity of experience. No matter how fragmentary and isolated life may often seem, it is a dance of whimsy and yearning and A Farm Under Poplars welcomes us, again, to its charms.