Bone Rosary: New and Selected Poems
A selection of the very best from one of America’s most thought-provoking writers: poems on life, faith, doubt, and death that read like memoir, essay, and story. As The New York Times said, “likely to resonate with many who have come face to face with life’s most important questions.”

Thomas Lynch—like Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams—is a poet who writes about real things with language rooted in the everyday yet masterfully infused with power:

I have steady work, a circle of friends and lunch on Thursdays with the Rotary.
I have a wife, unspeakably beautiful,
a daughter and three sons, a cat, a car,
good credit, taxes, and mortgage payments and certain duties here. Notably,
when folks get horizontal, breathless, still:
life in Milford ends. They call. I send a car.


Thomas Lynch spent his career as an undertaker in Midwest America—and in his off-hours became a writer of exceptional insight. Publishers Weekly calls him, “A poet with something to say and something worth listening to.” This collection presents 140 of his greatest poems drawn from his previous books, Skating with Heather Grace, Still Life in Milford, Grimalkin, The Sin-Eater, and Walking Papers. This is a collection for readers who love all life’s questions and mysteries—big and small.

“Thomas Lynch’s poems take us under the apparent world to where consciousness is alive and shimmering with joy and loss, blindness and epiphany.”—Billy Collins

1137318055
Bone Rosary: New and Selected Poems
A selection of the very best from one of America’s most thought-provoking writers: poems on life, faith, doubt, and death that read like memoir, essay, and story. As The New York Times said, “likely to resonate with many who have come face to face with life’s most important questions.”

Thomas Lynch—like Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams—is a poet who writes about real things with language rooted in the everyday yet masterfully infused with power:

I have steady work, a circle of friends and lunch on Thursdays with the Rotary.
I have a wife, unspeakably beautiful,
a daughter and three sons, a cat, a car,
good credit, taxes, and mortgage payments and certain duties here. Notably,
when folks get horizontal, breathless, still:
life in Milford ends. They call. I send a car.


Thomas Lynch spent his career as an undertaker in Midwest America—and in his off-hours became a writer of exceptional insight. Publishers Weekly calls him, “A poet with something to say and something worth listening to.” This collection presents 140 of his greatest poems drawn from his previous books, Skating with Heather Grace, Still Life in Milford, Grimalkin, The Sin-Eater, and Walking Papers. This is a collection for readers who love all life’s questions and mysteries—big and small.

“Thomas Lynch’s poems take us under the apparent world to where consciousness is alive and shimmering with joy and loss, blindness and epiphany.”—Billy Collins

25.95 In Stock
Bone Rosary: New and Selected Poems

Bone Rosary: New and Selected Poems

by Thomas Lynch
Bone Rosary: New and Selected Poems

Bone Rosary: New and Selected Poems

by Thomas Lynch

Hardcover

$25.95 
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Overview

A selection of the very best from one of America’s most thought-provoking writers: poems on life, faith, doubt, and death that read like memoir, essay, and story. As The New York Times said, “likely to resonate with many who have come face to face with life’s most important questions.”

Thomas Lynch—like Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams—is a poet who writes about real things with language rooted in the everyday yet masterfully infused with power:

I have steady work, a circle of friends and lunch on Thursdays with the Rotary.
I have a wife, unspeakably beautiful,
a daughter and three sons, a cat, a car,
good credit, taxes, and mortgage payments and certain duties here. Notably,
when folks get horizontal, breathless, still:
life in Milford ends. They call. I send a car.


Thomas Lynch spent his career as an undertaker in Midwest America—and in his off-hours became a writer of exceptional insight. Publishers Weekly calls him, “A poet with something to say and something worth listening to.” This collection presents 140 of his greatest poems drawn from his previous books, Skating with Heather Grace, Still Life in Milford, Grimalkin, The Sin-Eater, and Walking Papers. This is a collection for readers who love all life’s questions and mysteries—big and small.

“Thomas Lynch’s poems take us under the apparent world to where consciousness is alive and shimmering with joy and loss, blindness and epiphany.”—Billy Collins


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781567927016
Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher
Publication date: 04/06/2021
Pages: 256
Sales rank: 503,579
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Thomas Lynch is the author of five books of essays, a book of short fiction and five books of poetry. He was a National Book Award finalist for The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade and is the recipient of the American Book Award, The Heartland Prize for Nonfiction, The Denise Levertov Award, The Great Lakes Book Award, and Michigan Authors Award. Mr. Lynch lives in Michigan, where he worked as a funeral director until his retirement, and in Ireland, where he keeps an ancestral home.

Table of Contents

Cloud of Witnesses: An Introduction 19

From Skating With Heather Grace

Michael's Reply to the White Man 33

A Death 35

Venice 36

The Blood We Paid For 37

A Family of Fishermen 39

Tatyana 40

Like My Father Waking Early 41

Marriage 43

Lessons from Berkeley 44

O Canada 45

The Widow 46

A Dream of Death in the First Person 47

Skating with Heather Grace 48

Learning Gravity 50

A Clearing in the Woods 57

A Note on the Rapture to His True Love 58

Pornography 59

The Liturgist 60

Felt Myself Turning 61

A Good Death Even When It Kills You 62

To Her Sisters on the Nature of the Universe 63

Where It Came From 64

Noon on Saturday 65

Wormwood 67

Pruning 68

The Grandmothers 69

For the Ex-Wife on the Occasion of Her Birthday 70

From Grimalkin & other Poems

Attende Domine 75

Aisling 76

At the Opening of Oak Grove Cemetery Bridge 78

Green Bananas 81

Adoro Te Devote 82

Grimalkin 83

Casablanca 85

In Paradisum 86

Inviolata 87

Liberty 88

No Prisoners 89

O Gloriosa Virginum 92

Rhododendrons 93

That Scream If You Ever Hear It 94

The Nines 96

The Lives of Women 97

Tommy 98

West Highland 99

From Still Life In Milford

Art History, Chicago 103

Kisses 105

Bishop's Island 106

Rentals Ledger 107

An Evening Walk to the Sea by Friesians 108

Heavenward 110

The Moveen Notebook 112

The Old Operating Theatre, London, All Souls, Night 124

She Instructs the Brethren on the Laws of Love 125

Still Life in Milford- Oil on Canvas by Lester Johnson 126

From Walking Papers

Euclid 131

Montbretia 133

Fr. Andrews 135

To Be Among These Elegant Voices 136

Corpses Do Not Fret Their Coffin Boards 139

Oh Say Grim Death 140

The Life of Fiction 142

After Your Going 143

Thirteen for Sean at Thirty 144

Dear Mr. President 145

Local Heroes 147

Dear Mr. Vice President 149

Himself 152

Dear Madam Secretary 153

On a Bar of Chinese Soap 155

Dear Messrs. Attorneys General 156

Walking Papers 158

Calling 162

Refusing at Fifty-Two to Write Sonnets 165

From The Sin-Eater: A Breviary

The Sin-Eater 168

Argyle in Agony 169

Argyle's Vapors 170

Argyle's Balance 171

Argyle's Ejaculations 172

Argyle's Retreat 173

Argyle's Dream of the Church Dove 174

Argyle in Carrigaholt 175

Argyle's Return to the Holy Island 176

Argyle's Stone 177

Argyle at Loop Head 178

Argyle's Eucharist 179

A Corporal Work of Mercy 180

Argyle Considers the Elements 181

Argyle Among the Moveen Lads 182

His Ambulations 183

His Repasts 184

He Considers Not the Lilies but Their Excellencies 185

He Weeps Among the Clare Antiquities 186

Argyle at the Ennis Friary 187

He Posits Certain Mysteries 188

His Purgations 189

Argyle on Knocknagaroon 190

Recompense His Paraclete 191

Cloud of Witnesses: New Poems

A Laving Song 194

Libra 195

Accordion 196

You Who Never Came In 198

Nativity 199

Yossef 200

Some Octaves on Holy Orders 201

When She Knew 204

Recompense 205

How Howard Armstrong Learned the Verities 206

The Desert Years 207

At Moyarta 208

Twelve Days of Christmas 209

What Shall We Say? 210

Receipt 213

St. Kevin and the Temptress 214

Personal 215

Her Mother's Irises 216

San Cassiano 217

Par Rum Pum Pum Pum 218

Waterfowl at Summer's End 220

Moveen Solstice 221

Flotilla 222

Genesis 3 223

Franchise 2016 224

Corrine Among the Fronds of Basil 226

Gratis 227

Double Sonnet for the Florist's Son 228

Interment 229

Old Dogs 230

Theodicy: A Lament 231

The Prince Conti 233

Another Miracle 234

In the Gents Loo of the Stella Maris 235

To His Grandchildren as Dark Draws Hither 236

Priestess 238

Digitas Paternae Dextrae 239

Morning Among Piebalds 240

Buskers 241

Meadowhawk 242

The Sick of the Palsy Healed and His Sins Forgiven 243

Benediction 244

Little Elegy 245

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