Equal parts elegy and ode, Newly Not Eternal explores the startling suffering and sentiment implicit in human mortality. At the heart of this collection, a son has died on the cusp of his first breath, but the book’s stakes are larger and more universal than a single, silent, foreshortened life. Ranging from personal lyrics to monologues in persona, from triolets to a modified crown of sonnets, from surreal fantasy to natural landscape, George David Clark’s poems sing of the brutality of time and the beauty that transcends it.
George David Clark was born in Savannah, Georgia, and now lives in McMurray, Pennsylvania, with his wife and their four children. The editor of 32 Poems, he is associate professor of English at Washington & Jefferson College. His previous collection, Reveille, won the Miller Williams Poetry Prize.
“George David Clark’s new book of poems is as much a musical event as it is a literary one. This poet truly listens to every last word he sets to paper—good luck resisting the urge to give voice to these poems as you read them! A treasure of a book.”
~Amit Majmudar
“Clark’s poems are precise and memorable—songs in which deep feeling provokes startlingly fresh language. They are passionate poems, and the music that they make is true to the experience, reliably so, and amply.”
~David Yezzi
“Clark’s beautiful and moving second collection of poems, Newly Not Eternal, is a wonderful showcase for his formidable formal talents. The subtle display of formal variations here enhances his deeply contemplative project—that of interrogating faith with a poet’s ear and eye and a generous, open heart.”
~Sidney Wade
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.