“The poems in Bruce Bond’s new collection Peal probe music’s deepest sources. These beautifully crafted lyrics lead us down into intricate and sonoruous paths where we meet out own uncertain songs, at once ghostly, elegiac, and ecstatic. This is a work of exquisite complexity by one of our best poets writing today.”—Molly Bendall

“The speculative drive of these poems pushes the reader to the very limits of reflection.”—Daniel Tiffany

“Poets have ever sought a seamless integration of art and life: think of Keats’s ‘Beauty is truth, truth beauty’ or Yeats’s ‘How can we know the dancer from the dance?’ In Bruce Bond’s Peal, as in the work of this best predecessors, ‘it is impossible to know/where music ends, the world begins.’”—H.L. Hix, Etruscan author

In Bruce Bond’s seventh book, we see a sustained exploration of mortality and its embodiment in the consolations of beauty, most notably in music. Bruce Bond teaches at the University of North Texas and is poetry editor for American Literary Review.  Bruce Bond’s two collection of poetry released by Etruscan Press are Peal (2009) and Cinder 2004. Other collections include Blind Rain (LSU Press),  The Throats of Narcissus (University of Arkansas Press, 2001), Radiography (Natalie Ornish Award, BOA Editions, 1997), The Anteroom of Paradise (Colladay Award, QRL, 1991), Independence Days (R. Gross Award, Woodley Press, 1990), and four chapbooks.

Publication date: October 2009

Read an excerpt of Peal.