Latter Days

Latter Days tells a story about the meaning of a human life in the strange new world that is emerging today.

After an initial sonnet that presents the existential challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, it opens with "The Wanderer," a view of the world from the perspective of an aging world traveler seeking a summation of his more than seventy years of wayfaring. It continues with "In a Plague Season," a collection of poetic notes on the pandemic and its parallel to the changing climate of the earth. The next section, "A House Divided," extends the plague metaphor to the current state of political warfare, and the following sequence, "Toxic Manhood," examines the idea of maleness as a contested site at the center of the current struggle, suggesting an apocalyptic picture of a world in which the fertile union of sexuality has become obsolete.

The next section, "Ars Poetica," is a turning point where the art of poetry, together with the other arts, especially music, is enlisted in a process of healing and recuperation. Poetry's economy and wit are called in by the next section, "Oeconomics," to outline a modestly contrarian political philosophy that might provide the basis for a cure. Three sections follow—"Observations," "You Know Who You Are," and "Valentines"—that recover poetry's sensory grasp of the world, turn to human affection as a foundation of renewed health, and celebrate a long marriage. The final section, "Second Childhood," prepares the wanderer for the conclusion of his long search for meaning.