" Words Written Against the Walls of the City is a deeply haunting and deeply heartening book of poems. At times, this great span of feeling occurs within the small space between one line and the next. The real world of social media, malls, coffee shops, and woods blends beautifully with the supernatural world and its concerns with inspiration, loss, and the fate of the human being as an individual and humane collective. Bruce Bond's written a gem of a book: brilliant, contemplative, reflective, and full of life." ?Rowan Ricardo Phillips, author of Heaven , a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry "This collection moves among the fictions we?ve been led to; the ones we?ve chosen. Disguises abound?each line suspended over them, sometimes dipped into them, imperiled for a long moment?then rescued?poetry, after all?by Bond?s deft hand. His words, hard-won, shine a light and keep company." ?Mary Ann Samyn, author of Air, Light, Dust, Shadow, Distance "In Words Written Against the Walls of the City, Bruce Bond conjures lines of tensile strength and delicate intensity.

These are cerebral and conversational poems, philosophical and intimate, arising from the beauties, horrors, and astonishments of daily life. And always in these clear-eyed meditations?on memory, youth, death, and the nature of the self?the poet remains faithful to his intuitions. These poems are generous in their measures, achingly affecting, and wise. ?Doug Ramspeck, author of Black Flowers.