Detroit as Barn

Lost Horse Press
ISBN 978-0-9911465-0-5
2014 |  Poetry

Read and listen to selected poems from this collection

"Times may be tough, Detroit, but oh you are lucky in love. And lucky beyond all measure in your newest laureate, the marvelous Crystal Williams. If Detroit in decline is like one of those barns we see on a country road—unpainted, emptied-out, and leaning ever nearer to its Mother Earth—here are poems to praise the good hard wood that made it and the pitch of the roof once raised in praise. Here are songs of sorrow and fierceness that make us believe in joy again."  — Linda Gregerson

"In Detroit as Barn, Crystal Williams distills the breathing presences and absences in her native city, its industrial decay and human resilience, its shouts of despair and whispers birthing love. Her poetry teaches us the words to the beauty that the world passes over, discovers the soul in what has been lost or cast aside. This book gives me hope for America and for American poetry―and hope too for the spirit of Detroit that lives within us all."  
— David Mura