Gentle Grasp boils with times past and passing time, as the opening poem counts, courts, and catalogs the many kinds of seconds that make up a life: "heavy second / fading second / Fighting to corral / to herd a second." The poems that follow recount moments of life with sensitivity, grace, and humor.
In the titular poem, "Gentle Grasp," the beauty of a hanging raindrop is described in exquisite detail until it breaks from the...