Love Is A Burning Building

Love is a Burning Building is the second collection of what are also known by insiders as “the birthday poems,” written as homage to friends, family, colleagues, associates, acquaintances, and contemporaries. In these works, Bear employs a hybrid form of the prose poem, relying on colons to break up phrases, refrains, and ideas, as well as to tear down some of those very same things. This combination results in a masterful balance in which language is exalted. Dancing Bear never loses track of his theme: cycles—renewal, rebirth, regeneration, change, growth, and hope. These poems are refreshingly positive in their outlook but are not ignorant of the negative facets of cycles that can age all of us too quickly. While the poems were written for individuals, they bear a deep, undeniable universality.