Charles Wright is a spiritual poet who questions everything including his questions. He is a poet of nature who suspects that nature has a trick up her sleeve. Landscape and language interplay and he asks much of both, received much, but never enough.

In this collection, he reads from an imagined "Appalachian Book of the Dead" and takes us deep into wonder, and fear, and hope, and resignation, "Until there is nothing else" but silence. ( )

I don't read a lot of poetry, and this set didn't especially appeal to me. I thought the focus would be more place-based and in Appalachia, but then again, I don't know anything about Charles Wright. The poems grew stronger as I progressed through the book, and there were a few gems, but overall I wasn't particularly affected. ( )

Charles Wright's poems about Appalachia focus mainly on the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. A few poems in the collection are set in other locations around the world such as Italy. The book contains many references to the poet's well-known poem "The Appalachian Book of the Dead." It is not included in the small volume but five sequel poems and numerous references to the original poem are scattered through its pages. This is the final volume in the author's apparently unnamed trilogy. (Chickamauga and Black Zodiac are the earlier volumes.) Most of the poems included did little to make me appreciate them overall. I did appreciate a few lines here and there. His quotation of an old spiritual in one of the sequels to "The Appalachian Book of the Dead" brought back memories of hearing a favorite Southern Gospel quartet sing it about forty-five to fifty years ago. ( )

I just can't figure this work out. I tried, damn it, I tried. It leaves me cold, confused, and vaguely wishing I was smarter. ( )