Diamonds overhead.
We walk on crystals
Sharp as longing. (11)

The Fionavar Tapestry was my gateway to the works of Canadian fantasy author Guy Gavriel Kay. Having recently read J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and Stephen Lawhead’s Song of Albion trilogy, I was looking for more in that vein: epic fantasy with literary substance. I found it in Kay’s writing.

There was a grace to Kay’s prose that seemed to elevate it above what you would expect in generic high fantasy. As he continued publishing, he left pure fantasy behind to move in a more historical fiction direction with some fantastical elements. Through it all, his poetically-figured prose became more sublime.

This book of poems, Beyond This Dark House, is Kay at his best. It’s the grace of his fiction distilled into tersely worded evocative poems. He finds that sense of longing inherent in human nature, wraps his words around it, and draws it to the surface.

These poems are diamonds indeed.

Kay, Guy Gavriel. Beyond This Dark House. Penguin Canada, 2008.