The Irreversible Sun

“Lim’s poems capture the spirit of California with beauty and insight.”—Jon Parrish Peede, editor, Virginia Quarterly Review

“Shirley Lim’s poems sing with the defiance of Blake and Yeats, clapping hands ‘for every tatter in our mortal dress.’ The song is fierce, the vision incisively clear-eyed—supremely mature, an unsentimental perception of humanity and nature. The Irreversible Sun’s song soars even in direst loss.”—Anca Vlasopolos, author of Cartographies of Scale (and Wing)

“Shirley Lim’s poetry simultaneously puzzles and clarifies. These poems are rich in sense of place and startling juxtapositions: gingkos, coastal oaks, and magpies alongside glittery garbage. They move and surprise like the cracks and slides of the earth.”—Diane Thiel, poet, author, and professor, University of New Mexico