The Fact of the Matter

"Part-epic, part-elegy" this collection presents "a wonderfully involuted tableau where ancient Greek myth . . . strip malls, and natural history swirl together" ( Kenyon Review). In this intricately crafted poetry collection, Sally Keith shows the self as a crucible of force—that which compels us to exert ourselves upon the world, and meanwhile renders us vulnerable to it. Moving from the mundane to the profound, these poems re-imagine things great and small, constantly reorienting our relationship to matter, science, mythology, our internal selves. With poems remarkable in their clarity and captivating in their matter-of-factness, Keith examines the impossible and inevitable privacy of being a person in the world. As we seek to put everything in its place, we must also negotiate the inexorable pull toward the places we call home—one we alternately try and fail to resist.