The Law of Truly Large Numbers

James Kimbrell is an American master. His poems are perfectly balanced, giving us just enough moments of laughter to keep us from crying—as Shakespeare might’ve observed, ‘He uses his folly like a stalking-horse, and under the presentation of that he shoots his wit.’ Kimbrell rides the line between this world and the next at one hundred miles per hour in a ’72 Dodge Duster—reminding the reader, in order to keep up, ‘You need to keep the camera moving at the same speed.’ Kimbrell shakes us into a new perspective where we look up from the book at a giant mirror in the sky and ‘gain the illusion of spaciousness.’

James Kimbrell’s The Law of Truly Large Numbers is that rare collection of poems that delivers not just narrative but the transformations only lyric poetry can provide. Over and over, Kimbrell transforms the quotidian into the valuable. Whether it be a bowl made from a tree in the yard, or the ways in which love grows from the heart that has been rendered cold, these moving poems of memory and recollection will surprise and captivate you. Here we have one of our best poets writing some of his best work.

James Kimbrell’s new poems defy categorization. His tone is his own, his ear pitch perfect. His genius is to concentrate such a granular attention that each poem embodies a new, unpredicted discovery. Above all, he writes with unbridled intimacy and wit, of people, places, and things that he loves. The Law of Truly Large Numbers is the work of a contemporary master.