Leaf Graffiti

Exploring the interfaces between words and things, the rural and the urban, the natural and the human, the poems in this collection by Lucy Burnett are always in motion. Fascinated by sequence, repetition, and variation, Burnett uses words--and the white spaces surrounding them--as raw materials: "I lay these words before your mind like bricks / yet tentative." The rhythmic musicality of her work and the urgency of her themes propel readers toward conclusions that can nonetheless only ever be provisional: "if further centres / further into circles / if the weight of the world / is a story cupped in cumulus." Leaf Graffiti is an innovative and passionate debut collection.