Improbable Creatures

Poetry. Jon Davis's latest book of poems is bursting with signature inventiveness and the nimble lyricism that David Foster Wallace once praised as "off-the-charts terrific." Like the characters of a new alphabet, Davis's creatures form the language of this stunning collection. Some of his creatures vault from the page, playful proxies for his surprising insights. Others encrypt the poems with a supernatural intensity, like "the darkness leaning its black fur against the windows." And from them emerge new meanings for words we only thought we knew—of plumage, of song, of nest.