Standing on the shore, preparing to journey into the unknown, James Longenbach wrote these final poems with astonishing courage and clarity. Seafarer opens with a gorgeous sequence in which the poet looks down on his life from above, as if he’s already left it behind. With prophetic perception, Longenbach reflects on the encroaching tide of mortality through myth and memory. This volume unites Seafarer with Forever (2021) and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Earthling (2017); the three works have a powerful symmetry in their recognition of the ordinary, extraordinary, and precarious experiences of love and loss. From “The Interpreter” Another word for the interpreter, Sang the wind, ensuring I was fed, Is medium, the intermediate, Who speaks among the living for the dead.
