Gray Matter

Gray Matter navigates the slippage between waking and dreaming, thinking and being, reflecting the dynamic interplay of inner and outer worlds. The poems unravel the constructs of identity and the strange, subjective flow of experience as it intertwines with place, from the rugged American backcountry to vibrant terrains abroad—always tethered to childhood's grounding pull. A celebration of the unknown, the poems honor the innate curiosity that drives scientists, philosophers, and poets to pursue the mysteries of the brain. "At the heart of all of the questions in Gray Matter," writes Susan Wheeler, "is the dance, the negotiation, between imagination and science, perception and thought."