Reclamation

From the back cover: Brock Dethier runs the composition program at Utah State University, writes books for composition teachers and students, and each fall prepares a new group of graduate instructors to teach the courses that so many students dread. He has published a poetry chapbook, Ancestor Worship, and individual poems in venues from Mothering to The Epigrammatist to Sugar House Review. Reclamation begins with a childhood trauma that reverberates throughout the book and especially the first section, "Why Worry." The second section, "The Horns of Perception," chronicles the vagaries of trying to turn trauma (or anything else) into art, while the third section, "Trying Not to Limp," tackles addiction, alcoholism, and the dissolution of bodies and relationships. Finally, "Bag Full of Stars" details attempts to put the trauma aside to find contentment and moments of joy. Much of the emotional content of Reclamation is anything but easy, but readers are likely to, in the words of the final poem, "find ourselves in flow, / reach the other side and cheer."