The Trouble with Light

3,In The Trouble with Light, Jeremy Michael Clark reflects on the legacy of familial trauma as he delves into questions about belonging, survival, knowledge, and self-discovery in unflinching lyrical poems. Like you, he writes, I have . . . [a] history of / hardly caring for my body, of letting / whoever drink their share of me, / thinking it could cure / my fear of dirt. Whether ruminating on intimacy, lineage, identity, faith, or addiction, Clark's poems embody a restless, rigorous curiosity. Largely set in the poet's hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, his portraits of interiority gracefully juxtapose the sorrows of alienation and self-neglect with the restorative power of human connection. In one of the most affectionate-and characteristically ambivalent-poems in the collection, Clark recalls, For days, doubt struck as does lightning / across the span of night. . . . Love? If it exists, / it's the uncertainty one feels before a thunderclap, / after the sky's gone dark again. A vulnerable and transporting debut, The Trouble with Light is a vital record of how grief can endure, and how we can yet endure ourselves.