"Grief repairs grief," Michael Robins writes in The Next Settlement , and in these meditative poems, voices map the world with precision as a way to mend the holes they find in it. Pristine natural landscapes provide a jarring counterpoint to troubled internal terrain. These enigmatic scenes are masterfully rendered with a photographer’s eye.

“Michael Robins’ prismatic poems open windows, then close them, so we’re always getting glimpses of light that suggest a larger world. With never a syllable to spare, these poems are beautiful and haunting. I know of nothing like them.” —James Tate, winner of the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

“The Next Settlement is a finely honed, resonant collection of poems, sharp and vivid in language, uncompromising in judgment. The voice in this book is unsparing, often distressed, and involved in a world which is intrusive, violent, and deeply deceitful, where honesty and compassion are sought for in vain, and refuges for the mind are rare.” — Anne Winters, judge and author of The Key to the City