Review
In this book, Jonathan Stalling extends to us his hospitality. Enter this grotto, this book of poems a haven & lodge for light & dark, made by Jonathan Stalling with an ethics of respect & reverence. Pen opens to penumbra, shadowing each word. This book constitutes an attentive reaching, reading, a leaning into language, so that learning an other language rhymes with listening to & learning the emerging language-scape of one’s own child. In Stalling’s book we are lodged here, in poems, in a place allowing passage back & forth from the mystery of “I” and “we” to the mysterious housings of words in our language and in others. Words, characters, & embodiments make up the constellations, the figured stars within a larger darkness. I recommend to you Grotto Heaven as a fine place to take up lodging.
