The poems in The History of Permanence are startling in their inclusiveness, juxtaposing history, science, myth, and popular culture with a narrative thread that rises from memory. Groups of distinctively individual poems alternate with long poem sequences that range from one based upon the difficulties of genius to one that contemplates the wondrous things that literally fall from the sky to the tile sequence, a meditation on the desire for permanence. Gary Fincke, through twelve books of poems published over twenty-four years, has built a reputation for his skill at combining the...