<div><p>"To be both visionary and accurate, true to physics and metaphysics at the same time, is rare and puts the poet in some rarefied company. Black, like a few other younger poets, is willing to include all the traditional effects of the lyric poem in his work, but he has set them going in new and lively ways, with the confidence of virtuosity and a belief in the ancient pleasures of pattern and repetition."?Mark Jarman, <I>American Poet</I></p><p>Lush and daring, Malachi Black's poems in <I>Storm toward Morning</I> press all points along the spectrum of human positions, from sickness, isolation, and insomniac disarray to serenity, wonder, and spiritual yearning. Pulsing at the intersections of "eye and I," body and mind, physical and metaphysical, Black brings distinctive voice, vision, and music to matters of universal mortal concern.</p><p><B>Query on Typography</B></p><p><I>What is the light<BR>inside the opening<BR>of every letter: white<BR>behind the angles<BR>is a language bright<BR>because a curvature<BR>of space inside<BR>a line is visible<BR>is script a sign<BR>of what it does<BR>or does not occupy<BR>scripture the covenant<BR>of eye and I<BR>with word or what<BR>the word defines<BR>which is source<BR>and which is shrine<BR>the light of body<BR>or the light behind?</I></p><p><B>Malachi Black</B> holds a BA in literature from New York University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Texas at Austin’s Michener Center for Writers. His poems have appeared in <I>AGNI, Boston Review, Ploughshares,</I> and <I>Poetry.</I> He currently teaches at the University of San Diego and lives in California.</p><BR></div>