In Robert Fagles’ translation of Vergil, Aeneas,

contemplating the Trojan War cries out, “The

world is a world of tears, and the burdens of

mortality to touch the heart.”

Laura Brylawski-Miller intuits  the  lacrimae

rerum, the tears in things throughout her poetry,

and it is not only a result of the classic education

she received in her native Italy, but a

guiding insight that directs her view of the world,

the shape of her soul. Like the Buddha of

Sokkuram, she is stunned by the suffering...