Distributed for Tupelo Press
Westminster West
This collection bears witness to ecstasy and grief through persona. By inhabiting the voices of Adam and Eve, Abelard and Heloise, etc., deNiord reveals the enduring alterity contained within the self.
Westminster West traverses the worlds of here and beyond. Chard deNiord divines “the everydayness of the mystery . . . in which being and making poetry are the same.” From posthumous correspondence between Abelard and Heloise to such poems as “Skywriting Over The Rockies,” “With A Bone In My Heart,” and “I Call Out To You,” this collection betrays a mortal charge, bearing witness to what Emily Dickinson called “each ecstatic moment/ to which we must an anguish pay” and which Aridjis in his defiance of death calls “dust in love.”
Ambitious and masterful, deNiord renders such ancient subject matter as love, betrayal, landscape, loss, grief, aging, and ecstasy new throughout Westminster West. He transforms the echo chamber of futility, silence, and failure by aspiring to cross over to “the other,” whatever it may be, a stone or cloud or lover or garment, or cancerous lung, with a “negative capability” that allows it, no matter its identity, to speak memorably in a way that transcends simple definition and ultimately any personal connection to it.
Westminster West is divided into three sections that complement each other in their archetypal themes which range historically, mythologically, and cathectically. The poems in the first section imagine correspondences and dialogues between couples, including Heloise and Abelard, Adam and Eve, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Odysseus and Calypso, a widower and his deceased wife in the time of Covid, and a lovesick husband in the air above the Rocky Mountains and his beloved on the ground. The second section also features love poems but focuses on more instructional and metaphysical themes that vary from metaphorical pedagogy on the topic of sex to “the harsh advice of loss” to the memory of a young couple’s transcendent, romantic walk by a river. Section three moves away from love poems to mortal and environmental themes, including elegies, pastorals, and a concluding confessional credo on the bittersweet reality of poetry’s irony and blessing.
Westminster West traverses the worlds of here and beyond. Chard deNiord divines “the everydayness of the mystery . . . in which being and making poetry are the same.” From posthumous correspondence between Abelard and Heloise to such poems as “Skywriting Over The Rockies,” “With A Bone In My Heart,” and “I Call Out To You,” this collection betrays a mortal charge, bearing witness to what Emily Dickinson called “each ecstatic moment/ to which we must an anguish pay” and which Aridjis in his defiance of death calls “dust in love.”
Ambitious and masterful, deNiord renders such ancient subject matter as love, betrayal, landscape, loss, grief, aging, and ecstasy new throughout Westminster West. He transforms the echo chamber of futility, silence, and failure by aspiring to cross over to “the other,” whatever it may be, a stone or cloud or lover or garment, or cancerous lung, with a “negative capability” that allows it, no matter its identity, to speak memorably in a way that transcends simple definition and ultimately any personal connection to it.
Westminster West is divided into three sections that complement each other in their archetypal themes which range historically, mythologically, and cathectically. The poems in the first section imagine correspondences and dialogues between couples, including Heloise and Abelard, Adam and Eve, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, Odysseus and Calypso, a widower and his deceased wife in the time of Covid, and a lovesick husband in the air above the Rocky Mountains and his beloved on the ground. The second section also features love poems but focuses on more instructional and metaphysical themes that vary from metaphorical pedagogy on the topic of sex to “the harsh advice of loss” to the memory of a young couple’s transcendent, romantic walk by a river. Section three moves away from love poems to mortal and environmental themes, including elegies, pastorals, and a concluding confessional credo on the bittersweet reality of poetry’s irony and blessing.

Reviews
Table of Contents
I 5
This Side Of You 6
The Widow at Point Reyes 7
Tablet 8
Odysseus To Calypso, A Dead Letter 10
The Bishop Reports A Dream To His Analyst 11
Love IV 12
Adam’s Lament 13
Eve’s Lament 14
Heloise To Abelard (May 19, 1115) 15
Abelard To Heloise (July 15, 1115) 16
Heloise To Abelard (September 21, 1115) 17
Abelard To Heloise (September 27, 1115) 18
Heloise To Abelard (October 3, 1115) 19
Abelard To Heloise (October 20, 1115) 20
Love In The Time Of Covid 21
Skywriting Over The Rockies 22
The Shame 24
The Other 26
Mallard 29
Night Nurse 30
4
II 33
Lizard, An Exegesis As Lover Letter 34
How To Teach Poetry To Freshmen 35
Housatonic 36
The Book Of Guests 38
The Harsh Advice Of Loss With An Explanation 41
Medevac 42
To The Muse 43
Hectate 44
I Call Out To You 45
Pillow Talk 46
Cloud-making 47
III 48
Bronchoscopy 49
The Lake 53
The Loggers 55
Westminster West, Vermont, June 20, 8:03 pm 58
Sic Et Non 59
Credo 60
Notes 61
This Side Of You 6
The Widow at Point Reyes 7
Tablet 8
Odysseus To Calypso, A Dead Letter 10
The Bishop Reports A Dream To His Analyst 11
Love IV 12
Adam’s Lament 13
Eve’s Lament 14
Heloise To Abelard (May 19, 1115) 15
Abelard To Heloise (July 15, 1115) 16
Heloise To Abelard (September 21, 1115) 17
Abelard To Heloise (September 27, 1115) 18
Heloise To Abelard (October 3, 1115) 19
Abelard To Heloise (October 20, 1115) 20
Love In The Time Of Covid 21
Skywriting Over The Rockies 22
The Shame 24
The Other 26
Mallard 29
Night Nurse 30
4
II 33
Lizard, An Exegesis As Lover Letter 34
How To Teach Poetry To Freshmen 35
Housatonic 36
The Book Of Guests 38
The Harsh Advice Of Loss With An Explanation 41
Medevac 42
To The Muse 43
Hectate 44
I Call Out To You 45
Pillow Talk 46
Cloud-making 47
III 48
Bronchoscopy 49
The Lake 53
The Loggers 55
Westminster West, Vermont, June 20, 8:03 pm 58
Sic Et Non 59
Credo 60
Notes 61
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