A Hundred Doors

Michael Longley’s new book A Hundred Doors is already getting rave reviews! Check out this great article in The Guardian about his latest book. And here’s a sneak peak at one of the poems:

A Hundred Doors

God! I’m lighting candles again, still
the sentimental atheist, family
Names a kind of prayer or poem, my muse
Our Lady of  a Hundred Doors.

Supervised by a xenophobic
Sacristan, I plant in dusty sand
Names and faces that follow me
As far as windows in the floor:

Marble stumps aching through glass
For their pagan temple, the warm
Inwardness Praxiteles brought out,
The intelligence of stone.

The sacristan who picks my flame-
Flowers and blows them out, only minutes
Old, knows I am watching and he
Doesn’t care as he shortens my lives.

Wake Forest University Press will be publishing A Hundred Doors in April, so make sure to order your copy!

-Taylor