When Breath Was Drink for Ghosts is a meditation on love, loss, faith, and the aching beauty of life. In this collection of 200 poems, poet Peter Strayer offers a voice both intimate and expansive, weaving together deeply personal experiences with universal themes that transcend time and place. His poetry moves like memory--sometimes sharp and immediate, sometimes blurred and elusive--pulling the reader into a nonlinear yet profoundly structured journey, much like the human soul itself. At the heart of Strayer's work is a reckoning with pain and the longing for redemption. For example, in his poem 'Soliloquy Three (Sonnet 84)', he crafts a haunting portrait of regret and the irreversible consequences of choice. Through vivid imagery--bruises that never quite heal, blood that drips onto spoken views--Strayer captures the agony of lost dreams and the slow, often futile search for solace. His poetry does not shy away from suffering but faces it with an honesty that is both bracing and compassionate.
And yet, this collection is not merely an elegy to pain. Strayer's work, while steeped in grief, carries the promise of renewal within it. His words stretch toward beauty, toward transcendence, toward the quiet moments that sustain us. There are pastoral poems that celebrate the rhythms of nature and human existence--poems that remind us of the simple joys of wind over fields, the hush of morning, and the sacred ordinary. Some love poems, tender and unguarded, speak to the fragility and strength of the human heart. Some spiritual poems wrestle with doubt and belief, with the tension between silence and revelation.
Strayer's poetry is both accessible and deeply layered, drawing from classical, philosophical, and spiritual traditions while remaining rooted in the immediacy of the modern world. He writes with a timeless quality, yet his work speaks directly to the wounds of our age--the fragmentation, the longing for meaning, and the need for poetry as both refuge and reckoning. As fellow poet Jonathan Jackson writes in his endorsement, "When Breath Was Drink for Ghosts arrives at a time when the world is in desperate need of poetry's healing balm."
More than just a collection of verse, this book is an invitation--to pause, reflect, and feel. Each poem asks the reader to step into a space of quiet contemplation, listen to the echoes of their longing, and perhaps find something of themselves in Strayer's carefully chosen words. Whether exploring the depths of sorrow or celebrating the fleeting brilliance of joy, When Breath Was Drink for Ghosts lingers in the mind and heart long after the final page is turned. It is not just a book--it is an experience, a mirror, a testament to the beauty and burden of being alive.
When Breath Was Drink for Ghosts is a book for those who seek depth in language and meaning. It will resonate with readers who find solace in poetry that does not flinch from the realities of pain, yet still reaches for beauty. Lovers of classic and contemporary verse alike will appreciate Strayer's blend of accessibility and complexity, his ability to weave the personal with the universal. Those drawn to the works of Rainer Maria Rilke, T.S. Eliot, or Gerard Manley Hopkins will find a kindred spirit in these pages. Likewise, readers with a contemplative nature--those who wrestle with questions of faith, loss, and the passage of time--will discover in this collection a voice that speaks to their own inner journey. Whether for the seasoned poetry reader or someone simply seeking words that resonate in a noisy world, When Breath Was Drink for Ghosts offers a space to linger, reflect, and remember what it means to feel deeply.
