The Humility of the Brutes

The Humility of the Brutes - Cover

Poems

by Ron Smith

Southern Messenger Poets

82 pages / 6.00 x 9.00 inches / no illustrations

Poetry

Paperback / 9780807166567 / August 2017

The title of Ron Smith’s new collection comes from Yeats’s observation that creators “must go from desire to weariness and so to desire again, and live but for the moment when vision comes to our weariness like terrible lightning, in the humility of the brutes.” The poems in The Humility of the Brutes move beyond Yeats’s journey, using precise language and memorable phrasing to push through skepticism and guide us toward the mystical as we struggle to understand our past and our present.

Ron Smith was poet laureate of Virginia from 2014 to 2016. He is the author of five poetry collections: Running Again in Hollywood CemeteryMoon RoadIts Ghostly WorkshopThe Humility of the Brutes, and That Beauty in the Trees. Smith currently serves as writer-in-residence at St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Virginia.

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