Book excerpt: From the author of Gaze, a collection of poetry reflecting on the human condition, time, and the passing of existence. From celebrated poet Christopher Howell, Love’s Last Number is a series of musings on time’s arrow: on both the relentless march that divides each moment into past, present, and future — before and after — and the ultimately porous and recursive nature of time itself. A soldier remembers limes, and curious children in Portugal. Refugees cross a dangerous land, and find each other in love. Boy scouts play war in devastating ways, a child listens to a baseball game in a more innocent time. In this multiplicity of voices and tones, the collection reflects on what we, as humans, do about memory, love, grief, war, and the search for meaning. In its sinuous sequences, Love’s Last Number insists that life—and history—are a continuing crisis of faith, imagination, consciousness, and moral clarity. And yet these poems, like existence itself, offer moments of transcendent joy and sudden hilarity: laughter against the darkness. Praise for Love’s Last Number “Howell demonstrates the imagination of a fabulist and the intellect of a philosopher in his richly contemplative poetry collection. . . . Love’s Last Number showcases a visionary mind and serves as a testament to the power of imagination in connecting human beings with each other.” —Shelf Awareness “These poems are great gifts. They contain multitudes of Whitmanesque wisdoms. These poems read as what our fathers would say to us after they are dead and gone. These poems are necessary. They are essential.” —John Hodgen, author of Grace