Description
Continuing City is a book about the longing for a world that’s “realer than the one I’ve wandered here.” It is often apocalyptic in tone, with strong influences ranging from science fiction to (as one poem puts it) “the Bible, Dante, and Tarkovsky.” These poems take you on a journey from the mundanity of the modern city through mythological mountaintops and seascapes, always in search of an enduring homeland.
The book’s mythological journey is most fully exemplified in the translation of The Voyage of Saint Brendan, which sees its first complete publication in this book. There has been a great deal of interest in this translation (excerpt, here). If you’re not familiar with the story of Saint Brendan, it’s wild. An Irish monk (a real historical person and a saint in the Eastern and Western churches) sails across the ocean searching for Paradise, and encounters many adventures along the way. He chats with angels disguised as birds, sails through Hell, and celebrates the Eucharist on the back of a sea monster.
“A frankly remarkable sophomore breakout, with one eye on the fourteenth century and another, augmented, on the future. Jesse Keith Butler’s excellent poems have been precision-machined to withstand incoming waves, whales, floods, second comings, custodian bots, and other soon-to-be-current events. Admirably old-fashioned and awesomely fashion forward, as if crafted by a monk with a sci-fi side hustle.”
—Jason Guriel, author of Forgotten Work
Praise for Jesse Keith Butler’s first book The Living Law:
“With this debut collection, Jesse Butler is joining the growing group of Canadian poets who are taking poetry away from the academy and returning it to a broader audience of poetry lovers. Butler’s poems are thoughtful, well-crafted, and a pleasure to read.” — A.M. Juster, author of Wonder & Wrath
“This is a very fine book. Jesse Butler has put his mastery of traditional poetic form to good use in these varied reflections on faith, personal tragedy, encounters with nature, life in the modern Canadian suburbs and many other things. These poems reveal a mind expansively curious about the world and deeply attentive to it.” — Burl Horniachek, editor of To Heaven’s Rim: The Kingdom Poets Book of World Christian Poetry
“It’s not so often that a debut collection of poetry reveals a care for poetic forms, a clarity in book structure, and a serious grappling with large ideas. Jesse Keith Butler’s ambitious The Living Law reaches for the large: a world that lacks its Blake to etch fire in the mind; makeshift shelters in a modern landscape stripped of spirit and transcendence; the pulse of life below the world’s veneer; the living law as gateway onto a wide, windswept expanse. (And don’t miss the hermit’s donkeys!)” — Marly Youmans, author of Seren of the Wildwood
“These finely crafted poems cover road trips across Canada, a night of whiskey drinking with a buddy in an old church belltower, the joys and agonies of parenthood, and the inner lives of the Biblical patriarchs. Throughout, Butler renders relatable human experiences while displaying a strong grasp of the capacities and opportunities to be found within the limits of traditional English metre and rhyme.” — Steven Searcy in Traces: A Canadian Journal of Christian Arts & Letters
About the Author: Jesse Keith Butler is an award-winning poet based in Ottawa, Ontario. His work bridges traditional and contemporary poetic forms, rooted in his experience of the life of faith. His first book, The Living Law, was published in 2024 by Darkly Bright Press. He is the winner the inaugural ESU Formal Verse Contest, judged by Stephen Edgar. In March and April of 2026, Butler was the Writer in Residence at Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon.
Publication date: May 16, 2027 (Saint Brendan’s Day)
ISBN: 978-1-7642190-5-1
Cover painting: “Saint Brendan and Jasconius” by Michael Galovic (michaelgalovic.com)
Ships: May 16, 2027 (Saint Brendan’s Day)
