The Painted Bed Book

I confess I haven't been that strong a fan of Donald Hall over the years, but this final book (I believe it to be) is remarkable. THE PAINTED BED grieves over the loss of Hall's wife, poet Jane Kenyon, with such piercingly brutal honesty that the poems take him and us to a deeper and higher level. Some might find this off-putting, but I found it bracing and true and beautiful in its often craggy way. The poems of loss are more satisfying than the more conventional evocations of New England historic countryside, comforting as those may be (and where I was born). Overall, THE PAINTED BED is a searing testament to life and death by a poet whose profound loss forces him into great art.