Heaven: Poems

"Rowan Ricardo Phillips’ second collection is packed with poems that romp and revel their way off the tongue — think “pomegranate balustrades” and “nacre-gnarled écorchés.” He packs phonic exuberance into the tightest turns of phrase, while pondering the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Homer’s Hector, or considering the vengeance of envious gods and the elusiveness of justice. Through it all, his poems circle back to variations on heaven — as afterlife, as fixed sphere, as backdrop to the stars. He repeats the word itself like a curse or a compulsion. And while he can get quite solemn about the celestial, the joy he takes in his language balances out the seriousness."