Poetry. IRREGULAR NUMBERS OF BEASTS AND BIRDS is a collection of portraits, odes, and ruminations about life's major and minor disasters and recoveries. In vivid, unsentimental prose, Helman draws individual resonance from universal themes, and a sense of shared humanity that is drawn from the infinitesimally specific. Helman emphasizes the cyclical nature of life--the volume is divided into four sections based on seasons--as well as the human tendency to repeat the "same old stories" over and over again. At the same time, he reminds us that every lived moment is truly its own. "Subtle, funny, smart--Cecil Helman understand[s] something fundamental about the human condition, and regards it with compassion and warmth"--Cole Swenson.
