The Lost Book of Life

A poetic journey through five decades of wonder, memory, and love, where the ordinary becomes sacred and every line leads home

Spanning five decades of poetic mastery, The Lost Book of Life: New and Selected Poems is the definitive collection from Charles Ghigna, a beloved and influential voice in contemporary Southern poetry. Drawing from fourteen previous volumes and featuring thirty-seven new poems, this landmark collection captures the full arc of Ghigna’s creative evolution, from his early meditations on nature and family to his later reflections on memory, mortality, and the enduring power of love.

With graceful shifts between free verse and traditional forms, Ghigna’s voice is both intimate and expansive—clear as spring water, alive with wit, and steeped in feeling. His poems open doorways into childhood’s bright dreaming, the quiet complexities of fatherhood, and the sacred hush of daily life. Ghigna invites readers to see the world anew, to find beauty in the familiar, and to embrace the sacred in the ordinary. For longtime admirers and new readers alike, The Lost Book of Life is a luminous testament to a life devoted to poetry. It is both compass and keepsake: a celebration of poetry’s enduring light, and a lasting gift to the literature of the American South.