Nothing to Declare

**A bold new collection of poems of feral beauty and intense vulnerability**

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The poems in Henri Cole's ninth book, *Nothing to Declare*, explore life and need and delight. Each poem starts up from its own unique occasion and is then conducted through surprising (sometimes unnerving) and self-steadying domains. The result is a daring, delicate, unguarded, and tender collection. After his last three books—*Touch*, *Blackbird and Wolf*, and *Middle Earth*—in which the sonnet was a thrown shape and not merely a template, Cole's buoyant new poems seem trim and terse, with a first-place, last-ditch resonance. In their sorrowful richness, they combine a susceptibility to sensuousness and an awareness of desolation. With precise reliability of detail, a supple wealth of sound, and a speculative truthfulness, Cole transforms the pain of experience into the keen pleasure of expressive language. *Nothing to Declare* is a rare work, necessary and durable, light in touch but with just enough weight to mark the soul.