Lives of the Animals

His Best Yet

What I love most of all about Wrigley's poems is the language. It's always beautiful, no matter what he writes about--a near-sighted woman's breathing on a mirror becomes "a sleepy moth of breath"; the pile of viscera left from a killed deer's cleaning reveals "the sleek, degreening pancreas." And the poet's exceptional ear and amazing eye always illuminate something deep and even profound about being a human being. Read the poem in this book called "Do You Love Me?," in which a man overhears his little girl talking to her dog. It's touching, yes, but it's also really haunting. That's the other beautiful thing about Wrigley's poems: they stay with you. You can't forget them. You don't ever want to.