Finding the Gossamer

In several versions of ancient mythology, the spider is the creator of the universe, a weaver of reality, a goddess that has built an intricate web to support the story of life. In this collection, Patrick Hicks explores how we are born into history, how we spin our stories and struggle against failure, and also how throwaway moments can shimmer with unexpected beauty. Our lives and the lives of the dead are threaded together, they form an intricate pattern of love, loss, ancestry, and home. By teasing out these delicate intersections, Hicks explores how we are connected to the world around us.

"These finely wrought lyrics are focused on the family—in Ireland, Canada, the United States, and in-transit—to reveal origins, maps, anxieties, and coincidences. Hicks recovers from time desires, loves, and the moist mother tongues of the dispersed. Hicks searches through literary history for those he seeks to follow—W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Brian Moore in particular. This is a singularly impressive first collection—allusive, engaging, exciting."
Eamonn Wall

"The poems of Patrick Hicks brim with the confluence of Irish, American, and personal history."
Daniel Tobin

Patrick Hicks is a dual citizen of Ireland and the United States, as well as Writer-in-Residence at Augustana College. His work has appeared in scores of international publications. He is the author of Travelling Through History (2005), Draglines (2006), and The Kiss that Saved My Life (2007). Several poems from Finding The Gossamer have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Aside from being a Visiting Fellow at Oxford and winning a variety of grants to support his work, he has lived in Northern Ireland, England, Germany, and Spain. He currently lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he enjoys thunderstorms rolling across the prairie.

In several versions of ancient mythology, the spider is the creator of the universe, a weaver of reality, a goddess that has built an intricate web to support the story of life. In this collection, Patrick Hicks explores how we are born into history, how we spin our stories and struggle against failure, and also how throwaway moments can shimmer with unexpected beauty. Our lives and the lives of the dead are threaded together, they form an intricate pattern of love, loss, ancestry, and home. By teasing out these delicate intersections, Hicks explores how we are connected to the world around us.

"These finely wrought lyrics are focused on the family—in Ireland, Canada, the United States, and in-transit—to reveal origins, maps, anxieties, and coincidences. Hicks recovers from time desires, loves, and the moist mother tongues of the dispersed. Hicks searches through literary history for those he seeks to follow—W. B. Yeats, James Joyce, and Brian Moore in particular. This is a singularly impressive first collection—allusive, engaging, exciting."
Eamonn Wall

"The poems of Patrick Hicks brim with the confluence of Irish, American, and personal history."
Daniel Tobin

Patrick Hicks is a dual citizen of Ireland and the United States, as well as Writer-in-Residence at Augustana College. His work has appeared in scores of international publications. He is the author of Travelling Through History (2005), Draglines (2006), and The Kiss that Saved My Life (2007). Several poems from Finding The Gossamer have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Aside from being a Visiting Fellow at Oxford and winning a variety of grants to support his work, he has lived in Northern Ireland, England, Germany, and Spain. He currently lives in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he enjoys thunderstorms rolling across the prairie.