In Island
Light, the sun falls on a city like Manhattan, in a river valley that
seems to spread out before our eyes
like one of the great troubled wonders of the universe.
These poems are maps
of the reality we imagine in dreams and the paths we
travel during our few days on earth.
"'Such was
earthly life,' Eugene Richie writes in 'Croton Reservoir.' And such
it is: strip malls, freeway scenery,
family romance,
loved objects, rain, the promise of sleep, rude awakenings, the unceasing
patter of what Heimito
von Döderer
called 'the machinery of life' -- all suspended and made memorable in the
even gaze of love. His poetry
enchants even
as it fixes the spinning atoms that are what we know of our time here."
--John Ashbery
"These subtle,
deft poems are like an intimate conversation: full of an uncanny
delight in the companionship of a world whose details are as ordinary as
they are miraculous. 'What directions do we follow, what puzzles
can we solve?' Eugene Richie knows how to ask the right questions,
and to answer them 'in a language we call home'." --Ann Lauterbach
"Eugene Richie's poems negotiate the sum between what
is lost and what is found. They are hopeful in the face of myriad
threats. And graceful in a world where grace is often not prized."
--James Tate
