"The excellent latest from Reece is immersed in a faithful, but not unquestioning, lyricism, in part inflected by his life as a priest . Righteousness and puritanism are the enemy in these pages, and a leavening wit seeks to amplify, and deepen, an erotic of piety .These poems are generously companionable hymns of delight in service." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) " For Reece, the challenge is to write the words as lovingly as he is supposed to perform the acts the words describe, but which are wordless . The best poems in this collection enact this paradox, which is nowhere near as simple as it sounds." --Michael Autrey, Booklist ". when you / become a ghost in one world you become / a guest in another." Spencer Reece writes poems of deep searching--haunted, haunting meditations on what it feels like to be in and out of place.

In this book absence and presence are never quite opposites, and a quest for the meanings of home nurtures a lyricism of rare and beautiful combinations: perplexity and wisdom, desirousness and patience, risk and restraint. Acts is-in the full sense of the word--a blessing. " -- Matthew Bevis , author of Wordsworth's Fun of home nurtures a lyricism of rare and beautiful combinations: perplexity and wisdom, desirousness and patience, risk and restraint. Acts is-in the full sense of the word--a blessing. " -- Matthew Bevis , author of Wordsworth's Fun of home nurtures a lyricism of rare and beautiful combinations: perplexity and wisdom, desirousness and patience, risk and restraint. Acts is-in the full sense of the word--a blessing. " -- Matthew Bevis , author of Wordsworth's Fun of home nurtures a lyricism of rare and beautiful combinations: perplexity and wisdom, desirousness and patience, risk and restraint. Acts is-in the full sense of the word--a blessing.

" -- Matthew Bevis , author of Wordsworth's Fun.