Dear Beast

Catherine Pierce’ s stunning fifth collection is alive with creatures: blue herons and spiny orbweavers, questioning wolves and very human Beasts. These vivid, tender poems— of earth and animal, pandemic and family, rage, longing, and sea-deep love— urge us to remember and fight for our vital interconnectedness. “ How could I be any way but staggered?” writes Pierce of the wild world, before acknowledging the paradox of loving the earth as it’ s dying: “ What I want is to know about endings...