In couplets for a shrinking world John Medeiros has created a large and complicated world for his readers to live in. A generous book, a generous poet. How many ways can we learn about desire? How many images do we need to think and feel in new and confounding ways about love, illness, mortality, and beauty? Medeiros gives us abundance in this collection: abundance of forms to hold the abundance of his thoughts and feelings, abundance of image and partial narratives where we feel him asking: do you see what I mean? Can you see through my eyes and words the soulful, struggling, blessed life of a gay man making his way through the forests of love and loss, of medicines and fear, of heritage and the deep pleasures of being an American artist? This is a book that allows the reader to settle in. We settle in to the life and imagination of our poet-guide. We are his faithful readers. And couplets for a shrinking world rewards our faithful attention to this poets extraordinary first collection of poetry. May John Medeiros write many more books. I will be waiting to read them all. — Deborah Keenan, Author of eight collections of poetry, most recently, Willow Room, Green Door: New and Selected Poems, Milkweed Editions.
