Whatever Falls

With captivating polyvocality, Anthony McCann’s new book-length poem makes an attentive and expansive record of listening. 

Written in the woodlands of New York’s Hudson and Mohawk Valleys during a crisis moment in his mother’s Alzheimer’s disease, Whatever Falls leads readers through terrains of forest, hospital, home, and history. Along the way, the poem deftly holds the counterbalance between the neurodivergent linguistic landscape of the poet’s young son who’s learning to play with words and his mother who is rapidly losing hers. Threaded through with entwined historical and ecological resonances, McCann assembles a thoughtful record of relationships to place and transcribes moments of unconventional and unexpected human connection, while attending to the non-human world of the forest as it shapes and carries social relations. In three poetic movements, Whatever Falls builds a testament to care and curiosity.