Resuscitation Party

Poetry. Rob MacDonald’s debut collection is a fierce romp of invention. The poems are a meditation on what is right with the collective human spirit. They are funny. They are wise. They are full of a magnanimous cloud that just keeps on giving softness. Even at their darkest, MacDonald’s work is light. Or, we should say, an elegant balance between the capricious and the delightful. MacDonald moves between the cerebral and the visceral with mastery and grace. This is a gorgeous book of poetry that everyone should read.

It’s a thrill to read Rob MacDonalds poems–jaunty, lost, curious, scared. To ‘survive this terrible togetherness’ is the work’s aim, and as we read, we move in and out of awkward and transformative social situations, interior landscapes of dream and desire, and a wise mind, winking at the cosmos. Most importantly, though, the poems are serious in their concision, in their attempts to ask big questions and leave us dangling inside the firm arms of their mysteries.–Emily Kendal Frey

RESUSCITATION PARTY will devastate your world to make it better. These poems navigate their dreamspace with the confidence of a sleepwalker. ‘It made sense at the time–walking around and around the zoo until it turned into our lives.’ MacDonald has the talent to take you to the heart of the human matter. He has the courage to leave you there.–Roberto Montes