In women & roosters, Fenn Stewart presents a contradictory world that is both beautiful and brutal, humorous and heartbreaking.

Taking its title from Galen’s claim that “all creatures are sad after sex except women and roosters,” this semi-autobiographical long poem expertly winds its way through topics as far reaching as climate change, nature, trail-running, settler nationalism, motherhood, love, loss, and illness.

In both form and content, the book revels in opposing forces. Cities, forests, and oceans are sites of both abundance and abandonment. Humans, birds, deer, crabs, plants, and trees thrive and multiply, but also get sick and die. Living things eat and are eaten, find joy and misery, run, fly, and swim—and meet natural, and unnatural, ends.

Written in a refreshingly conversational tone, while offering striking (and at times unsettling) imagery, women & roosters is a forthright and deeply emotional triumph that will linger with readers long after its final, vibrant page.