Painstaker. Jeffrey Galbraith

In Painstaker, Galbraith takes stock of life, building an inventory of faith, regret, travel, parenthood, and hardship both physical and mental. These poems live in cities but remember the farm, with subjects ranging from fatherhood and machinery accidents to the uncertainties of faith. Galbraith calls on a number of absentees who are deceased, divine, distant, or too intimately known, including loved ones, lost friends, and a lobster soon to be dinner. As the title suggests, Painstaker understands that the act of paying attention to the details is no easy task, and yet therein lies the reward.