Book of Hours Author:Kevin Young A decade after the sudden and tragic loss of his father, we witness the unfolding of grief. ?In the night I brush / my teeth with a razor,? he tells us, in one of the collection?s piercing two-line poems. Capturing the strange silence of bereavement (?Not the storm / but the calm / that slays me?), Kevin Young acknowledges, even celebrates, life... more »?s passages, his loss transformed and tempered in a sequence about the birth of his son: in ?Crowning,? he delivers what is surely one of the most powerful birth poems written by a man, describing ?her face / full of fire, then groaning your face / out like a flower, blood-bloom,/ crocused into air.? Ending this book of both birth and grief, the gorgeous title sequence brings acceptance, asking ?What good/are wishes if they aren?t / used up?? while understanding ?How to listen / to what?s gone.? Young?s frank music speaks directly to the reader in these elemental poems, reminding us that the right words can both comfort us and enlarge our understanding of life?s mysteries.