Bees, and After (Volume 119)

by John Liles

The 119th winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets prize places science at the heart of his powerful poems

For John Liles, science and the natural world form a route into the workings of love, of grief, and of joy in the thrum of life. Judge Rae Armantrout calls his poems “dense, sonically gorgeous studies of various natural things and creatures, including light, bees, minerals, shellfish and crabs, insects, and the workings (and failure) of the heart.” Written under the shadow of our changing climate, Liles’s poems are tender elegies but also praise-songs for the continual unfolding richness of the world. Writes Liles, “oh unending animal, / you go where / the light goes.”

96 pages, Paperback

Published March 25, 2025

Reviews

[Matt]

Liles crafted interesting images abstracted in scientific language; creating delicate arcs that at times lacked heart.

I did appreciate the pairing of neologisms in Nimbus Crush:

“encradled
tidewhile”