Half-Open Door

by James Finnegan

Poetry. "[T]here's a working collie in (this poet) / who chases feet sound rhythm and form / and gladly burns in the fire and flow" aptly captures some of the dynamic in this astonishing collection. "[S]omeone said sadness / is the shadow of a cloud / another that there is more than sadness here / the sun itself has vanished" maps an empathic way of breaking into pain in Paris. In "the female deer have antlers" Finnegan asks "where does this stillness come from"—as you read the poems in HALF-OPEN DOOR, don't be surprised if an affirmative relation to being and to the world announces itself.