In 2023, poet John Stammers faced a near-fatal health crisis, a brush with mortality that irrevocably altered his poetic landscape. Queries on Death, the Infinite and Irrational Numbers is the culmination of that journey, a collection forged in the shadow of death, seeking words to capture and question such profound experience.

At the heart of this collection lies the darkly humorous “Death Songs,” a sequence born from hospitalization and transcribed in its aftermath. Stammers offers a frank and clear-eyed perspective on death and its implications, drawing inspiration from diverse sources and a surreal hallucinatory experience born of extreme physical distress.

Surrounding “Death Songs” are poems of technical innovation and tender vulnerability, exploring love and intimacy within a broader emotional and intellectual framework. These are epistemological meditations that retain the vibrant essence of poetry, elegies for artist friends that grapple with the transient nature of fame and charisma.

More than ever, Stammers infuses his work with a philosophical depth, elevating it beyond the purely literary into the realm of the metaphysical. Queries on Death, the Infinite and Irrational Numbers signifies the powerful return of a leading voice in contemporary poetry.