Matthew Thorburn is the author of seven books, including String, a novel in poems, and The Grace of Distance, a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. He lives in New Jersey.
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Description
"Plainspoken and pared down, A Hundred Birds is a meditation on memory where flashes of joy and new life highlight a grappling with grief, loss, and the passage of time. Like the 'bird-like shadows' of a wife's hands, or the flickering fireflies that 'mean and keep meaning,' here is an aching that both comforts and haunts. Matthew Thorburn's work exerts a quiet power-humane and searching as the ghosts in his poems."-Tina Cane "Captured within the breathtaking luminosity of Thorburn's words are the beauty and value of the ordinary lived life and the persistence of the humble human spirit. I urge you to read these haunting and haunted poems by a visionary poet who reveals the connections between body and soul on every page because this book's unforgettable revelations will change you."-Yerra Sugarman "The title poem of Thorburn's stunning new book features a tree with 'a hundred birds exploding out, when you thought it was . . . empty,' but surprise and discovery mark every poem. Examining family, memory, and art, Thorburn writes, 'I love / and must find a way to keep loving'; he must be like the ancient clay figure unearthed unbroken, 'that revenant / left whole because he kneels.'"-Suzanne Cleary