Canopy: Poems

A long-awaited yet startlingly urgent new collection from "a contemporary master"*--a fierce, big-hearted eye on our last, tumultuous decade, and our fragile environment *Los Angeles Review of Books

Linda Gregerson's long-awaited new collection is a tour de force, a compendium of lives touched by the radical fragility of the planet and, ultimately, the endless astonishment and paradox of being human within the larger ecosystem, "in a world where every breath I take is luck."

From the Syrian refugee and ecological crises, to police brutality and COVID, to the Global Seed Vault buried under permafrost, the poems ask: How does consciousness relate to the individual body, the individual to the communal, the community to our environment? How do we mourn a loved one, and how do we mourn strangers?

The magnificent poems in Canopy catalogue and reckon with humanity and the natural world, mortality, rage, love, grief, and survival.

How does a poet reckon with a world in crisis?

• Poems About Grief and Loss: Navigating the space between mourning a loved one and mourning strangers, these poems ask how we can carry sorrow in a world of constant crisis.
• Environmental Poetry: From the Global Seed Vault buried in permafrost to the larger ecosystem, this collection confronts the radical fragility of our planet with a clear, unflinching eye.
• Poems About Social Justice: Bearing witness to police brutality, the refugee crisis, and the pandemic, Gregerson catalogues the human cost of a tumultuous decade.
• Lyrical and Literary Voice: A collection that confirms why Linda Gregerson is called "a contemporary master," where every line is a reminder that "every breath I take is luck."