The poetry of Scott Owens traces the contours of loss and hope, possibility and renewal. A determination to speak honestly and courageously of important personal matters, pervades this book and gives it emotional urgency page after page. Owens embodies Cocteau’s definition of tact–“knowing how far to go in going too far”–while striking a similar balance between long poems and haiku-like or koan-like short ones. Especially notable at the book’s center is a love poem Neruda would have been happy to write, the laser-intense “You in the Tomb of My Eyes.” Owens knows poetry is a serious business; while various other poets these days might seem caught up in gamesmanship, this poet plays for keeps.
–Philip Dacey, Editor of Strong Measures
In EYE OF THE BEHOLDER, Scott Owens explores the shaping of partnership, singing the body in all its passioned curvatures. Absence proves as intoxicating as presence; in one standout sequence, “This moon knows how I feel, / to be held apart from its sun.” Yet there is a grounding vernacular–rose petals fashioned into a sandwich, beans pickled for the jar, a bed whose headboard and frame resist alignment–that keeps one foot, pleasingly, in the everyday. Owens’ warm, sensual images are in the tradition of Pablo Neruda, Marc Chagall, and other artists of “this coupling, / this circumstance we call love.” This is a heartfelt, bold, and energizing read.
~Sandra Beasley, author of I Was the Jukebox
The eye in Scott Owens’ “Eye of the Beholder” is the passionate “I” of the poet, watching every turn and gesture of the beloved and speaking from it, sounding the lineaments of desire in each poem and pulling the reader into its embrace. Over the years, Owens has ranged widely in subject matter and style. This is his most intimate book yet, his voice tender, full of longing and anticipation. He beholds what he loves, whether woman, blossom, or falling leaf, all of it gathered up in the world’s body, the ultimate beloved, after all, that he renders in finely tuned lyrics.
–Kathryn Stripling Byer, author of Descent and Coming to Rest