In the Still of the Night

Wier is a poet concerned with capturing the fluidity of thought and experience-and not diminishing its forward charge in doing so. Wier’s lines have always had a wild whitewater crash to them, overwhelming any vessel she pours them into. -Boston Globe

That’s how one human leaves us ends the first poem of Dara Wier’s direct and powerful new collection, a raw and fluid exploration of grief. Wier records her thoughts with intelligence, clarity, honesty, and immediacy, showing us the unraveling of her world and her new consciousness after a great loss.

it would not be sufficient to stop

the bleeding grief absence is for

these words would have such life

in and so of them they would burn

in ways so present

we would begin to smell smoke and think fire

Dara Wier is the author of numerous collections of poetry, including You Good Thing, Selected Poems, Remnants of Hannah, Reverse Rapture, Hat On a Pond, and Voyages in English. Also among her works are the limited editions (X In Fix) in Rain Taxi’s Brainstorm Series, Fly on the Wall, and The Lost Epic, co-written with James Tate. She teaches workshops and form and theory seminars and directs the MFA program for poets and writers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and co-directs the University of Massachusetts’ Juniper Initiative for Literary Arts and Action. She is the co-founder of Factory Hollow Press in North Amherst, Massachusetts.