Messy Tenderness (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780975388167)

"What luck-a new bounty of poems by Robert Lovitt.

"Lovitt's love of quotidian detail, sensitivity to relational energy, and ear for the rhythms of the natural world echo through messy tenderness alongside a stark eye on mortality. With a careful 108 titles, we're invited to center ourselves one poem at a time, one word after another, in lines spun from decades of memories and emotion. Lovitt's work is as human as ever: we're here for break-ups, workdays, yardwork, convalescence, new love, mattress shopping-even a food handler's permit class. Most striking for this middle-aged reader were the multiple moments of caring for or being with a person preparing to leave their earthly body. Amid the mirth and yes, the mess, there is great tenderness: we find resilience and affirmation in his expressions of witness (for life and its bookend; for his loved ones, and for us). Lovitt gathers all this rich pathos around the tellings of departure to cast them in a brilliant light of aliveness only he could conjure.

"With this collection in hand, you might feel a little more ready to sit with your beloveds at sunset."

Alison Bailey

Writer & Editor

December 2025