The Diminishing House (Carnegie Mellon Poetry Series)
"Written with education and enlightenment, "The Diminishing House" is a cherishable collection"  --Midwest Book ReviewWhat a sober delight it is to read Nicky Beer's The Diminishing House, whose rooms of poems are generated in loss, but completed in joy. Even the most grievous reminder of a parent's death, a favorite song still haunting the speaker, is rendered not as renewed hurt, but as springboard to revelation. Beauty out of damage: "Song from a cut throat: / catgut, sheepgut, woodskin. // This song is what the mind can bear." The cut to gut to gut to skin reminds us of the violence underpinning the crafting of instruments, made all the more valuable because of it. Whatever darkness falls in this book, the poet is given the means and mind to transform it. As Nicky Beer brilliantly puts it: "The dark makes you a gap-goer,tether-tongued." These are unforgettable poems.Nicky Beer's scrupulous articulations make the most of diminishing things. She names the body electric and sings against our losses and erosions with uncanny verbal precision. This is a shining first book.<Edward Hirsch>