Taylor Graham's new book of poems, Walking with Elihu: Poems on Elihu Burrett, the Learned Blacksmith, contains around ninety poems that present various facets of Elihu Burrett's life. Published in 2010, you may buy this book from Amazon.com. I recommend that you buy it if you like well-shaped, insightful poetry, if you are interested in peace, international justice, languages, walking tours, 19th century America . . . or blacksmithing.

The poems follow the path of Elihu's life, drawing on his writings for details. I would have appreciated a bibliography of the items Graham used, but the two pages of biography she provides are very useful. Wikipedia has a decent article on the learned blacksmith also. Many of the poems also have epigraph's from Elihu's writing.

One of the most effective aspects of these poems is the way Graham intertwines details of Elihu's life with her own insights. The poems give the details context and force. For instance, the first poem, "Forging a World," begins

Vega, Regulus, Aldebaran —
were those the stars that sparked
from your anvil, the morning after
your memorized their names?

This stanza puts the smithy in a cosmic context, appropriate to Elihu's being self-taught, and also appropriate to the dense archetypal imagery associated with smithing. The collection is filled with equally effective and effectively varied examples, all well-shaped, ranging in form from sonnets to a ghazal to a variety of poems in three- and four-line stanzas. Taylor Graham has shaped and tempered the matter of these poems to produce a collection well worth your time.