"What a joy it is to read the exquisite collection, The Grace of Falling Things by Karl Plank. A tapestry of elegy and ekphrasis, these poems investigate grief, loss, faith, philosophy, and love."

-Jennifer Franklin, author of If Some God Shakes Your House

Plank is a generous, compassionate observer of what he sums up in the title of his new collection: The Grace of Falling Things. Throughout these poems, which have an ambitious range of subjects and styles, Plank reminds us that we are called "to witness the downfall," though he never abandons us to despair ... these poems honor what is missing and "serve to hold/what remains." We can only be grateful for these wise words of witness, change, and praise.

-Margaret Mackinnon, author of Afternoon in Cartago and The Invented Child

The Grace of Falling Things is a book steeped in contemplation. Across four well-made sections, Plank shows us the richness of a deep, abiding attention...Though "the grace of falling things" refers to a pine as it "slips through atmosphere," we realize that we too are the falling things. Karl Plank's poems attend to their work with patience and honesty and an eye for what the careless might miss. We should listen to what they say.

-Adam Houle, author of Stray

In The Grace of Falling Things-which includes elegies, prayers and ekphrastic poems-Karl Plank reminds us that in fact each day of our lives constitutes a threshold to be crossed with the help of grace. For him, sacramental symbols include carpenter's tools, worn sink basins, the windows of rooms where children sleep, gravestones, tarblooders securing railroad ties with scalding tar, the glow of sun on a man's bare head, a tin cup full of cool water, a clothesline that looks like a sail ... Reading these poems can help us to negotiate what we find on the other side of each threshold.

-Ann Neelon, author of Easter Vigil