The Organ Builder
Dedication to craft of all sorts is everywhere evident in The Organ Builder, but so too is dedication to thought, close observation, and having something important to say about our shared humanity. Austin MacRae has written an impressive and impressively promising first book. --Bruce BennettRoot and craft. Again and again, the shaping of the prima materia is at the center of these poems. Branches are bent, trunks split open, the heartwood is planed and sanded. Like the strings of an instrument, the harmonic dovetailing at the core of Austin MacRae s poetry is not only one of line to line, of rhyme to rhyme, but one of man to place and ultimately of man to himself. His quiet craft is the light applied to the dark root of things, and through it we receive a gentle warning that the world is real. --R. Nemo HillThe Organ Builder provides further proof that Austin MacRae is one of the finest poets of his generation. His work is both accessible and challenging; his considerable technical mastery serves well a perceptive intelligence and an empathy for his subject. The Organ Builder is both a fruition of a love affair with language and a promise of work to come. --Robert Darling