In Because Everything Is Terrible, Paul Guest reminds us what has made him such a refreshing and illuminating voice for years. These are urgent poems, made all the more urgent by the apocalyptic-feeling political landscape we’ve entered. They overflow with a wondrous kind of dread. These are the poems we need in 2018: skeptical and solemn, tongue-in-cheek, and yet, always big-hearted. Always desperate to praise all that can possibly be praised: Dragonflies mating in flight. Waking beside your beloved. How the stars hang in the sky whether you look for them or not.
Because Everything Is Terrible, reviewed by Rob Shapiro
