If It Comes to That

With his fourth full-length collection, Marc Frazier has provided us with "a design for living." In a world that is quick to destabilize subjective experience, Frazier creates a second world of dramatized human experience by weaving personal history with artistic ancestry. Part meditation and part ekphrastic, Frazier has collaged a mixtape of wonder and wonderment. If "the loneliness inside you is deeper than the sea," then this book is a salve. Through conversation with other poets, painters, film makers, and musicians, Frazier proves that poetry and art are explorations of lineage and their enduring influence echoes up from the past into the present to direct and console us.

-John McCarthy, Author of Scared Violent Like Horses

If it Comes to That concerns itself with a wide range of our human experiences, whether they be"the children/ who have disappeared to mirror the earth," a man petting the slope of a horse's forelock, our nation pondering bullet proof blankets for children, or small boys discussing whether the Klan might target Catholics, Frazier invokes compassion. His readers may find themselves contemplating art, literature, artists and writers. They will confront suffering. But, always they will return to where "our better selves sing/yes, they sing."

-Eileen Cleary, Founder, Editor-in-Chief, Lily Poetry Review and Books

If It Comes to That is a collection that thoughtfully considers the human condition. The poet shares deep reflections on the creative spirit, on the archetypes that encapsulate our behaviors, and on our relationship with the natural world. One can't help but see the connections that emerge while reading these poems-there are big questions of how we're connected to the people who inspire us and the ways in which we're tied to the past. However, these poems are also filled with the people who we touch simply and softly, hand to hand, finding a way through uncertain times.

-Aaron Lelito, Founder, Editor-in-Chief, Wild Roof Journal