In Bereft & the Same Sex Heart, his first collection of poetry, Samuel E. Cole's concerns range from growing up gay in a conservative Christian community to the difficulties of domesticating love, from the starkly political to the deeply intimate, and from formally innovative to searingly emotional poetics, often within the same page. Cole's work is dizzying in the best sense of the word, exploring new love, old scars, rage, and acceptance in equal measure.
