Sweet Nothing

The poems in Nate Pritts's fifth collection are deeply personal, in the sense that Pritts always seems to be writing both to and about his dearest confidante. Romantic, and full of, as Matt Hart notes, "joy at the prospect of making a connection," these poems complicate and revel in everyday moments of being human. Formally, the poems range from contained couplets to scattered, deconstructed lines. Poems grouped into sequences, and several poems with titles that begin "(letter to her with…)" lend to the collection's cohesion. From "(letter to her with her concept next to me)"


        There are so many sums between now

	& when. My head hurts with this thinking.

	I want a lyrical vibration, that humming;

	the nature of the experiment is that soon

	I can tear off running after all those things

	I can't hold. And we'll see what adds up then.

This book review originally appeared in American Poets.