Bridges, Night

The poems in Sean Akerman's Bridges, Night survey the ruins of late empire. Red-lit refineries, ghostly motels, empty train tracks, rainy highways, and mournful fields come in and out of focus on an ambulatory journey through a depopulated midwest. After traversing rusted-out towns and bridges, the poems turn their attention to the people who call these places home, whose hearts and dreams flourish and give way. Bridges, Night offers more than stolen glimpses into a modern wasteland, however. Life finds a way of continuing on. Birds nest in the gutters of abandoned homes, herds return to blast sites, foxes appear in clearings, hands reach out for hands. Like the mythological Phoenix rising from the ashes to soar on the wings of new life, the poems that conclude the collection, composed as a cycle of ghazals, lift disappointment and decay into amatory song, fusing a fragmented world into a meaningful pattern.-Andrew McCarron, author of Mysterium and The Ballad of Sara and Thor