The Idea of the Garden Michael S. Moos The Ashland Poetry Press, 2018: 87 pp. This review appeared in the 32nd edition of The Briar Cliff Review. In this extraordinary collection of poems, we join the poet on solitary night walks by the river, encountering stunning natural imagery and rhythms of syntax that tendril out like a map of the poet’s mental perambulations. These poems are saturated with the longing to connect with nature, the awareness of mortality, and the grief of

A Dog Between Us duncan b. barlow Stalking Horse Press, 2019: 244 pp. This review appeared in the 32nd edition of The Briar Cliff Review. The world of duncan b. barlow’s most recent novel is surprising in its realism. For the author who gave us shape-shifting assassins (The City, Awake, 2017), blood-thirsty babies (Of Flesh and Fur, 2016), and mutant cat people (Super Cell Anemia, 2008), a novel about humans suffering uniquely human losses is a remarkable departure. With star