Falling Out of the Sky - Tapa dura

Pope employs plain yet sensuous language, lyrical intensity, and startling images to deal with both the familiar ("Age. How to think of it.") and the extraordinary ("An angel has begun to speak to me"). There is the anger of children, the clutch of illness, the rawness of love and grief alike, the strangeness of revelation. At times they literally wrestle with angels.

In this mature, powerful collection, Pope boldly reveals her own grief, fears, and regrets as well as the grace, mercy, and love she shows and is shown. Falling Out of the Sky beautifully communicates the profound and enigmatic relationship between love and desire, hate and betrayal, despair and hope.

Deborah Pope is the author of two previous poetry collections, Mortal World and Fanatic Heart, and A Separate Vision: Isolation in Contemporary Women's Poetry as well as the coeditor of Ties That Bind: Essays on Mothering and Patriarchy. She teaches English at Duke University.