The Wild Severance contains six poems that serve as a prologue and an epilogue and introduce each of the book’s four sections. They form a loose narrative depicting a deadly encounter between a hawk and a crow and stand as an extended metaphor
exploring the difficulties of living a complex human life—loss, loneliness, desperation, joy, sorrow, love. As the poem “O” observes, ‘The hawk bows to the breast of the crow / with the abandon of a lover. Beak for teeth / tearing away at the heart’s cover.’ The book opens with a poem entitled “Orison,” which calls into consciousness its central symbol of brutality, the hawk, and is followed by “Crow,” which introduces the book’s first section and initiates an exploration of the dark dualities of predator and prey, perpetrator and victim, guilt and innocence, fear and fearlessness, terror and assurance. The Wild Severance concludes with “Hawk and Crow,” which begins ‘When morning returns’ and ends with ‘prayer.’ This book takes its reader, therefore, on an undulating flight through darkness to light.
"The Wild Severance delivers on its title. Pelicans, crows, gulls, fireflies, robins, cardinals, blue jays fly from its pages messaging time, illuminating our lives 'in the falling darkness.' But it's not only the animal world this poet loves: he writes of literary and mythological figures, elevating them to existence with language. There are people to remember, too: 'where a second child fits; how coffee brings a mother and father back from memory; present-day family encounters,' while I watch from my chair I see five generations. This is a book rich with what is true and what lasts; V. P. Loggins makes us believe there's sanctity enough in this cold world."—Grace Cavalieri.
"With his newest collection of poems, The Wild Severance, V. P. Loggins startles us like crows taking flight after a gunshot. This book wraps around the human heart in all of its moods, reflecting the melancholy of late in the day, when 'The sky beyond is changing violet,' the unease of 'night / when the moon is burning,' and the hope that comes when 'light / outside the window hardens / the black morning into blue.' The poetry here is astonishing. Light spreads throughout these poems like sunrise through opened curtains. They are written with the meticulous and patient gaze of a bird watcher."—Stephen Roger Powers
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