Have

Poetry. Asian American Studies. In Marc Gaba’s poems, austere typography reveals by suggestion, never declaration. In phrasing and imagery as precise as pencil drawings, the page’s white spaces are as active with import as what is visible. Have swerves formally among varied styles, constructing and awakening through the sign-language of a physical book an irrefutable question: Could any of us say that our life is our own? Marc Gaba meditates on the nature of aesthetic beauty with an almost clinical passion, weaving expertly among the emblems of Christianity as well as Marie Curie, Watson & Crick, and other secular icons of the modern moment. Have shimmers, a tapestry hanging from the stone wall of faith, or more precisely, from an idea of faith, inside of which ‘what must you forgive’ and ‘what you would forgive’ wrestle…. (A) gorgeous debut–G. C. Waldrep.