Seeing Double

The doubling effect in Gary Whitehead's collection Seeing Double is half elegy, half ode. How else to recognize the complexity of what it means to give up the drink and start a new life! In Whitehead's recognizable direct simplicity and commanding lines, we are privileged to follow this arc from loss to revitalization. I enjoyed the heck out of these poems for the unapologetic sincerity, the willingness to tell it straight, and the tenderness by which Whitehead approaches his past and future. What a joy to witness that, in whatever stage of life, we are deserving of the necessary grace. Seeing Double is an honest take on a life hard-earned and the blessing of a second take. -James Hoch