Stumbling Blocks

“The wonderful eloquence of these poems testifies to the traffic between ancient and new. The speaker is a witness, a visitor, a participant in the life of the great city of Rome. But there is far more. Above all, these are poems of a continuous, crafted subtlety,voicing in each poem the way the fragile present moment not only reveals the past but rescues it. This is a book that will give endless pleasure and illumination to the traveler in every poet, and the poet in every traveler.” –Eavan Boland, author of Woman Without a Country

“I think of Kirchwey as one of the true formal masters of American poetry, brilliant and supple in his craftsmanship in the tradition of Richard Wilbur, Anthony Hecht, and James Merrill. This is a magical volume of poems that asks us to consider what the poet calls ‘stumbling blocks,’ those many physical, temporal, and spiritual interruptions to our passage through a landscape and a life.”—David St. John, author of The Last Troubadour: New and Selected Poems​

“Karl Kirchwey reinvigorates the beauty of Rome for readers of poetry. Seeing with his clear eyes, we survey the Mediterranean’s varied history through deeply personal poems crafted with unassuming virtuosity.”—Michael Putnam, author of The Poetry of the Aeneid and Virgil's Pastoral Art

"Here, in this poem and many others, topography is fluid; time blurs under the force majeure of the poet's erudition, and the lucky adventurer is ensorcelled by the passing characters and circumstances that readily succumb to Kirchwey's attentions. Throughout this short collection, the author maintains a languid, generous presence. He is a master of his craft, and a reliable guide through the shadows of Rome and beyond. In Stumbling Blocks, Kirchwey is writing at the peak of his powers, which are considerable.” —Daniel Lawless, Founder and Editor of PLUME: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry

"In our literary—or should I say spiritual? —world there are many who are obsessed with rebellion, with change, with wild laughter or sneaky irony. Karl Kirchwey is not like that. Stumbling Blocks is a book of piety, of admiration. What I like most here is the attention given to detail. To admire is one thing, to be precise—another. This book is admirably precise." —Adam Zagejewski, author of Canvas and World Without End: New and Selected Poems