The themes of LOW GROWTH are not predetermined but discovered tendencies, a growing familiarity with the way one"s mind works the more time one spends trying to articulate its curiosities and attractions. LOW GROWTH contains an attitude more than a theme-it is an attitude, to use Paul Tillich"s phrase, of "infinite concern." No matter how moods fluctuate, how futile and meaningless living is at times, Christian Thompson is in awe of the spirit"s persistent curiosity, especially in the bleakest moments. Somehow living means something even when we feel it means nothing. It is a mysterious and vital attitude, something to be revered. LOW GROWTH is a book of reverence for whatever it is inside us that not only keeps going despite hard times but is curious as it moves, often enjoying itself. "Christian Thompson writes with the range of subject matter and the generous heart of a grown man. His poems are filled with lyric insight and lightly worn erudition. These poems speak truths you didn"t know you knew in ways you didn"t know were possible."-Thomas Lux "Thompson"s poems are equal to any other philosophical poems written by a contemporary American poet. They introduce the reader to a new realm of thought with impressive skill and invention. They deserve the attention of any reader of poetry seeking something serious, something new."-Stephen Berg "I am joyfully amazed by this book: it is whip-smart, craftwise, and poignantly sequenced. I wish I"d read LOW GROWTH twenty years ago so I could have reread it since, and again this morning-these poems are that intelligent and that intensely felt! Thompson, given his analytic acuity, also possesses a starry gaze and a gentle, but persuasive manner of unfolding his poems; no, not unfolding pages, but unpetalling them, light-glint by light-shine. Please enter this book unprepared to be subtly and forever changed."-Kate Knapp Johnson "These meditations have the feel of long intense exposure to the many meanders of the river of consciousness: its depths as well as its snags and-always-the lurking presence of submerged objects. Thompson is to be congratulated on his clear-sighted willingness to take such risks."-William Kulik "Thompson"s meditations in LOW GROWTH combine the physical world, stirring emotions, and haunting perceptions to reveal poetry for what it necessarily is: the voice of a mind speaking back to itself as it tries to make sense of our common humanity."-Chris Banks "The poems in LOW GROWTH are explorations of classic themes of love, loss, and discovery that are filtered through the eyes of the poet and, at times, through the eyes of renowned thinkers and literary figures such as: Coleridge, Freud, Berryman, Emerson. In short, Thompson"s poems engage you and take you on journeys filled with precise language that creates a type of formal colloquialism in order to explore the mysteries of the mind and physical landscape. Here is a collection that clarifies the world-a new world we can all live in."-Kevin Pilkington