“Many cultures have had names for seers like Matt Rader. Contemporary Western culture has none. This is the book of a man who has died more than once and who carries with him knowledge of the point where being’s blaze touches nothingness. A book of profound humility and intense vision.”
– Jan Zwicky, author of Songs for Relinquishing the Earth

“Ghosthawk is a field guide to wildflowers, birds, marriage, feeling—the “sudden animal” entering the poet’s sightline. These astonishing poems tender the world’s fullness, heavy with each, alight with looking: mariposa lily, snowberry, yarrow, yellowthroat, a body in peril, jewels of rain. From the ghosthawk of the title “circling / the white arrow / of its body smaller / and smaller away” to a sequence of islanded couplets turning on a lonely offset rhyme, the poems render the nuances and forebodings of feeling, and a singular farewell. Oh, they crackle with keen noticing and the living, vibrant world, but there’s soul ache too. Mirages and vanishing. “Yes, you can hear / moonlight / shatter.” A haunting dissolution and nearly unbearable fragility lie at the heart of this collection. Yet it is distinguished by—and I find myself repaired by—its generous radiance. This is an exquisite book: soul rich with regret and wonder, magnifying.”
– Geri Doran, author of Resin

“It’s honestly, no bullshit, one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. Ghosthawk speaks to me on a profound level.”
– Jordan Scott, author of I Talk Like A River