Originally published in the Clarion-Ledger in September 2014

Greg Miller turns his discerning eye outward in his newest collection of poems, The Sea Sleeps, translating experience into finely wrought verse. A scholar of the Welsh metaphysical poet and Anglican priest, George Herbert, Miller draws from Herbert’s use of form to contain expansive ideas.

Selected from several previously published collections, as well as a large selection of new poems, The Sea Sleeps reveals Miller’s range over nearly a decade of published work. Undeterred by experimentation, Miller’s poems are of a refreshed formalism. “Forgiveness” sprawls across the page in shattered lines, while other poems fall into a regimental meter.

 

To Miller, poetics is a system of calculating and finding value, of showing the relationships between things, both internal in the poem itself, but also in the external world. Where structure is stable, the subject matter is fluid.

The strength of Miller’s work is in the humanness of the narrator. Like the Psalmist, he struggles with his faith, with the brokenness of the world. Throughout the collection, the speaker moves from a France steeped in its past, to war-torn South Sudan, to his window overlooking “one tree in white bloom.” No matter the locale, Miller’s careful selection of detail is transporting.

Greg Miller’s cultural contributions extend beyond his poetry. The Janice B. Trimble Professor of English at Millsaps College, he was featured in a 2011 article in Oxford American, highlighting his work with Sudanese refuges. Poems addressing Miller’s work with these refugees are included in his collection. Also included are several translations.

Miller makes the familiar unfamiliar. In “Capital Towers,” he turns his attention to Jackson:

 

the Governor’s mansion, Statehouse,

the decaying, grand

King Edward, and the Electric Building—

 

the last gutted like a fish,

its art deco scales intact and buffed

lustrous against brown marble.

 

My eye, intent ever

on artifice, wanders. I am a crow

with an eye for shiny things

 

The Sea Sleeps is a wonderful poetic grab bag, showcasing the breadth of Miller’s experience and insight.

Adie Smith is a poet and bookseller at Lemuria Bookstore. The 2014 winner of the Tennessee Williams Festival’s Poetry Contest, she is a regular contributor to Relief Journal’s blog. Her poetry has appeared in Ruminate Magazine and Rock and Sling, among others.

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