Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Impossibility of Nothingness

The Impossibility of Nothingness

McDonald, Ian

Paperback

General Poetry

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ISBN10: 1845236300
ISBN13: 9781845236304
Publisher: Peepal Tree Press
Published: Jun 25 2026
Pages: 72
Language: English
In what Ian McDonald has described as an unlikely flowering, the poet in his late eighties and early nineties has produced a striking late body of work, including Not Quite Without a Moon, Chasing the Marbleu, and The Impossibility of Nothingness. While unmistakably the work of McDonald, these poems also feel newly open and unexpected in tone. His characteristic strengths remain: compassion, a nuanced exploration of love, a deep engagement with the natural world, and vivid character sketches that form a poignant record of a changing Guyana. These late poems, however, place greater emphasis on memory, ageing, and mortality, alongside intimate reflections on grandchildren, gardens, and the simple wonder of being alive at great age. What distinguishes the collection is a new freedom in the language-- more immediate, elemental, and unrestrained. The poems feel written out of necessity rather than design, carrying a quiet, unforced truthfulness. As McDonald writes in the final line of the title poem: I record this just in case it's true.

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