The Great Wheel

A compelling blend of poetry, prose, and the author's own translations. This is Cal Kinnear's fifth book, delving into the power of language both to clarify and to obscure the meanings of things and to unveil the essence of whole paradigms of human thought. As author Randy Barnes describes it, the book is "...not so much a statement about where poetry comes from as it is an inside-view of poetry becoming itself, happening now, unfolding on the page before us." Kinnear tackles ideas and concepts from the inception of Western thought through our present day. A rich trove for readers of poetry, serious scholars, and students ready to apprentice themselves to the poetic arts.  

"This is a text like no other, divining the naming and un-naming of things from zero through infinity in the way of the philosopher-poets. Cal Kinnear turns The Great Wheel deftly, alternating contemplations on immensities with crystalline poems. Spoked with his translations of Heraclitus and spun with the dreams of memory, it’s a book to reach for again and again. No doubt the Pre-Socratic would be proud to chop logic with the author, and sing his praises for this astonishing new work."

—Susan Lynch, author of Into the All Empty