The Cataracts (Paperback)
Staff Reviews
“when I was small and wanted to look at the sun / he said if you want to stare at the sun / and not go blind you look not at its light / but what it illuminates the world the moon / never the thing itself and always its reflection.”
I love this collection from staff-favorite poet, Raymond McDaniel. I devoured this in two days. Its pitch-perfect blend of colloquial language interwoven with beautiful prose and imagery is a dream-like meditation on sight and light (and its existential opposites). McDaniel wonderfully threads narrative throughout this collection, giving it substance with its immense, thought-provoking style and philosophical explorations. A must-read for those unafraid to delve into the reflections all around.
— From Mike's PicksPraise for Raymond McDaniel:
"Raymond McDaniel's language trains every particle of your attention on the surface and what stirs beneath." --C.D. Wright
From "Projection Box"
Light is not light.
Light is only one way things radiate,
so light is an object falling apart.
The light of the moon
is the light of the sun
which is the sun collapsing.
Raymond McDaniel is the author of Special Powers and Abilities, Saltwater Empire, and Murder (a violet), a National Poetry Series selection.