In Narrow Cradle, Wade Kearley explores the midlife encounter with mortality and the ways we strive to resist, deny, cheat, and even bargain with it. Grounded in both traditional and modern poetic forms, these poems find in the transience of life a new kind of freedom, a rebirth independent of personal circumstance. In crisp, direct, and vivid language—swerving between sonnet, villanelle, and sestina—Kearley offers a compelling collection by turns vicious, lost, ragged, and regal.
Reviews
“The poems of Narrow Cradle mark shifting seasons of place and heart, sounding depths of lives lived among strength, fragility, tenderness, awe and other landscapes. Wade Kearley is writing in peak form here: from expansive ranginess to arrow-like precision and finesse, poem after poem offers up occasions of toughness, joy, reflection, empathy and quiet power.” – Susan Gillis
“These are by no means simply musings of an ageing poet. This is the raw, real beauty, fraying and resiliency in each of us. Leaving me again inspired by the written word… Whether you’re new to the genre or a veteran, read this work. It will be time and emotion well spent. These stories are ours, shared by a highly-skilled storyteller. Perhaps it’s all been done. But as tides turn and birds return, you can be wondrously surprised by the beauty and flight of each one.” – Bill Arnott, The Miramichi Reader
