George Kalamaras

Reaching Forever

Arts & Literature

“In Reaching Forever, Philip Kolin has written an epistle of river water and light, of ‘rocks sprouted so we would/remember ourselves // in the eruption of space and time.’ His words, like ‘The Fugitive River’ about which he writes, twist ‘through dreams, sending swinging/scarecrows back to daylight with notes written/round their necks in tombstone letters.’ His is a generous vision of the sacred amidst ‘hillocks’ and ‘knolls’ and ‘brown stubble beards/in November’s drizzle.’ He delves into the roots of his faith through meticulous attention to the natural world and by exploring—sometimes recasting—the religious narratives that comprise touchstones of his everyday life. With startling precision, Kolin delicately blends moments of emotional exile with the compassion of deep communion and connectedness. Each poem is a tender genuflection to the godliness of the breaths we breathe into and through one another. In ‘Trees of Late Autumn,’ he gives us a vision of wholeness, saying, ‘But whether they/blossom and bloom,/or stand mute in the cadaver cold, // . . . It’s all sacred forestry.”