Sky-Mammals

The allure of the whimsy meets the tragedy--as was the flight of Icarus, and as is the skydiver's lifestyle of "toil & suave / adrenaline & repent." In his new collection of poems, Blair Hamelink portrays a life in the sky, blending passion and woe into lyric velocity. With particular desperation and spinal ache, the speaker of these poems is looking for an escape from the "angel-factory," where skydivers have been "jovially flung, dealt Pocket Aces / & an itch for that miniscule velocity on the cheek," but are now, forced to face a consequence. In these reflections, there are questions of worth toward a sport that fantasizes the superfluous flight--where, in a changing climate, skydivers are "guilty of tumult" and "imitating the immortal." Alongside those questions, this book conjures up mythic and real figures who have contributed to skydiving, such as: Icarus, the Rebel Angels, Napoleon, Moloch, Newton, and some Dark-Vowelled Birds. As Blair writes in his preface, this book is a nod toward Paradise Lost--John Milton's epic poem, depicting the fall of man.