Vestiges by Jacob Minasian

A book of seasons and a sense of an age—a soldier turned into stone, a hawk with trash in its talons, a long-absent father’s visitation—are we in Ohio, or California, or ancient Greece? Holding up the mirror of Greek myth to the current American moment, Minasian considers the patterns that entrain or sustain us. Vestiges‘ sharp, observant poems explore the old (new) story of resistance and movement, change and homecoming, “the invisible channels skating between realities.”
–Mary Cisper, author of Dark Tussock Moth

Jacob Minasian‘s ambitious book, Vestiges, is an incredibly engaging first full-length poetry collection written for our dystopian times. Set in the eight months ending in the 2020 impeachment hearings, the collection explores both the personal as well as the big issues including climate change, overly divisive politics, and our crass modern materialism. Using an inventive structure, each section contains close observations constructed carefully with intriguing wordplay. Minasian’s interest in re-imagining the classics, whether Greek mythology or poetic forms like the haiku sequence and the crown of sonnets, is integral to his poetic vision. A vision that sees the troubled world as it is, borrows from a mythical past, and generates a work which somehow provides hope for the future.
–Ross Belot, author of Moving to Climate Change Hours