Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced

By Catherine Barnett

The family response to the sudden deaths of the speaker's two young nieces is at the center of Catherine Barnett's award-winning first collection. This series of elegies records the transit of grief, observing with an unflinching eye how a singular traumatic event can permanently alter our understanding of time, danger, the material world and family. Marked by clarity and restraint, these lyric poems narrate a suspenseful, wrenching story that explores the depths and limits of empathy.

"These heart-breaking poems of an all-too-human life stay as absolute as the determined craft which made them. There is finally neither irony nor simple despair in what they record. Rather, it is the far deeper response of witness, of recognizing what must be acknowledged and of having the courage and the care to say so." -Robert Creeley

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1882295455
• ISBN13: 9781882295456
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Alice James Books
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.4" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Yet Devastating

There is something haunting about this book. I had no impression going into this book of poems, especially since I had no clue what the title might be reaching for. I was pleasantly surprised as I read these poems dealing w/ various angles of a tragedy. Barnett is very talented in finding different ways to speak about one event. Of all the poems Nits is by far my favorite and eventually, I did figure out the title :) Definitely worth the read and impressive for a young poet.

Took the top of my head off

This is simply one of the most beautiful books of poetry I've read in a very long time. Its subject matter, the death of two young girls in a plane crash, would render almost anyone mute, yet Barnett has found a way to speak of the ineffable here, and to make something beautiful out of despair. The style is appropriately, exquisitely restrained, and yet there is a poignancy in the deep silences of these poems. Do yourself a favor: buy this book, and when it arrives turn off the tv, close the paper, and let these elegies remind you of what matters in this life.