Description

The title poem ponders the mysteries of a 37 acre span mushroom and the “data dance of bumblebees,” as well as elephants who communicate with their kin to convene “a funeral for one of their fallen.”

From dowsing to cracked wisdom of peculiar hermits, from undersea living to mutant-killing video games, the poetry of Donald Levering shows the wide-ranging imagination of a poet who lives simultaneously in the real world of lawnmowers and hard drives and in a Southwestern world of myth and magic realism. Here is a fine book of poems. Read it. —Tony Barnstone.

“We need more magic words,” writes Donald Levering in his new chapbook of poems, The Kingdom of Ignorance. Levering himself adds to the storehouse of printed magical wisdom. He shows a child’s awe about nature’s mysteries—nesting sea turtles, idiot savants, and the sea-and-lightning-charged soup of primordial life. Levering also sounds the depths of imagined realities—alchemy, wood fairies, video game jaguars, and human love. This is an essential, inspiring missal from a master poet. Don’t miss it! — Denise Low