Music for Landing Planes By
Informed by Éireann Lorsung’s own far-reaching interests—sewing, printmaking, writing—Music for Landing Planes By honors the makers, methods, and materials embodied in daily objects. From the copper plate of an Intaglio print to the patched muslin form of a dressmaker’s mannequin to the maddered boy taking shape on a loom, these poems transform the ephemeral into the eternal.
Along the way, Lorsung combines an affection for formality with an overarching intelligence and pertinence, telescoping ideas and images in an astonishing variety of forms, and concerning itself with various states of being. Combining art and artifacts to create verse that is uniquely modern, Lorsung has invented an entirely original lexicon—one that that will leave readers eager to read more.
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Praise and Prizes
“Music for Landing Planes By presents us with a beguiling voice that is light without being weightless. The poems are charming because the world Éireann Lorsung explores has charmed her. . . . The lyrical nature of her composition and the surprises that hang at the end of her verses make this assortment of delights eminently re-readable.”
“In this amazing first book, Éireann Lorsung enters deeply into the everyday—only to emerge awestruck, open, and generous. In her hands both the world and the word are transformed into something radiant.”
“The reward of Éireann Lorsung’s collection is her celebration of all physicality, all flesh and construction. She is attentive wherever the body and its tools meet. . . . Her poems unite bravery and delicacy.”
“A young woman’s love song to the planet. Images flock from a vivid pastoral world, uncarded fleece, wrens in thatch, chaff, lathe, and hasp, joining the speaker in her effort to stitch prayer and dream, city and country, into one shimmering fabric of ardor.”
“Hands, birds, heart, snow . . . In this remarkable first collection, Éireann Lorsung proves again and again that there is still tremendous potency in these careworn motifs. . . . She is true to what moves her, and has thereby manifested a unique and powerful voice