Canopy

A long-awaited yet startlingly urgent new collection from “a contemporary master”*—a fierce, big-hearted eye on our last, tumultuous decade, and our fragile environment *Los Angeles Review of Books

Linda Gregerson’s long-awaited new collection is a tour de force, a compendium of lives touched by the radical fragility of the planet and, ultimately, the endless astonishment and paradox of being human within the larger ecosystem, “in a world where every breath I take is luck.”

From the Syrian refugee and ecological crises, to police brutality and COVID, to the Global Seed Vault buried under permafrost, the poems ask: How does consciousness relate to the individual body, the individual to the communal, the community to our environment? How do we mourn a loved one, and how do we mourn strangers?

The magnificent poems in Canopy catalogue and reckon with humanity and the natural world, mortality, rage, love, grief, and survival.

In a world of overlapping crises, how does a poet bear witness?
Ecopoetry for a Planet in Crisis: From the Global Seed Vault under permafrost to the quiet dignity of a single tree, these poems confront the radical fragility of our shared environment.Contemporary American Poetry: Capturing the last tumultuous decade with unflinching clarity, Gregerson gives voice to a nation grappling with police brutality, a global pandemic, and political division.Poems of Grief and Witness: Asking how we mourn both loved ones and strangers, these poems navigate personal loss alongside public tragedies like the Syrian refugee crisis.Unflinching Political Poetry: With a fierce, big-hearted eye, these poems challenge readers to reckon with the moral complexities of our time, where, as one poem reminds us, "every breath I take is luck."