Testimonials

In Burial Grounds, Brian Gavin speaks with a voice that’s profoundly in the world, but not of it. The transcendent elegance of his lyricism is grounded in the humanness of everyday imagery, where the lives of those unseen take centerstage. As the internal and external landscapes merge, even the most ordinary settings become symbolically significant. The quiet expansiveness of Gavin’s voice will appeal to readers who love poets like Carl Philips, Mark Doty, and Louise Gluck. It’s a voice of both interiority and universality, a voice that speaks to our moment of truths that have always been.

Gavin’s poems are quiet, elegant reflections on people – alive and dead – in danger of being forgotten, in towns not in the mainstream of modern life.