Be With

Gander’s collection is a searching meditation on grief, attention, and the porous boundaries between self and world. The poems often move by association, arriving at insight through image and sensory detail rather than statement. There is a deep awareness of nature, but it is not pastoral comfort; it’s a field of presence and change. Gander’s language can be elliptical, yet it carries emotional pressure beneath its restraint. The poems explore intimacy and loss with a quiet, unshowy honesty. Lines feel attentive to breath, as if thought is being measured against silence. The collection rewards rereading, revealing new connections and echoes over time. There’s also a philosophical undercurrent: what it means to “be with” another person, another landscape, another moment. The book is formally subtle, relying on pacing and image rather than rhetorical flourish. It leaves an aftertaste of tenderness and unsettledness. A spare, luminous work for readers who like poetry as deep listening.