A brief poem called “Lost Place” appears as the prologue to All These Ghosts , the first full-length poetry collection from former Kentucky poet laureate Silas House. This poem’s speaker approaches the past with a sense of mystery but also insists that this present moment be understood.

All These Ghosts

By Silas House

Blair, 128 pages

$22.95

House will discuss All These Ghosts at the Southern Festival of Books , Oct. 18-19

“I recall the wild places, fecund, rich. / I wade into the creek, diaphanous / myself, am I haint or witch?” the speaker wonders. But then he focuses our attention toward what’s at stake: “Now, this is the land of the beguiled, / I see it before me so plain, / the little paths I trod as a child / and will never mark again.”

By turns plaintive and exhilaratin

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