Shane McCrae

Lessons and Carols

Counseling, Grief & Mental Health

“In the middle of Lessons and Carols, John West claims he is ‘no poet.’ But Lessons and Carols itself argues most convincingly that he is a poet. And he is the best kind of poet—a poet who can make moments of the highest lyricism also moments of perfect clarity, one whose way of saying is necessary to what he’s saying. Lessons and Carols is a beautiful book, a heartbreaking book, a book that with its fullness reaffirms life, and so it is a gift of a book.”

Word Made Fresh

Arts & Literature

Foreword

““I’ve never read a book like Word Made Fresh. And I’ve come to realize that it’s a book I’ve been seeking for most of my life. . . . Word Made Fresh is an introduction that stays with its reader beyond the moment of introduction to ensure that the reader can make a home with and in poetry. . . . When I was fifteen, poetry discovered me. And now I feel as if I know it for the first time.”