The Reinvention of the Human Hand

Paul Vermeersch's new book of poems illuminates the sometimes unexpected yet profound consequences of the collision between technology and the natural world, between the evolutionary process and the human condition.

In The Reinvention of the Human Hand, Paul Vermeersch continues his ongoing poetic exploration of what it means to be human and alive in the physical world.

From the mean and humble origins of our genetic inheritance to the present-day complexities and limitations of the human form, from crude depictions painted on cave walls to pixilated images on a screen, and from the collective voices of "the hundred billion dead who came before" us, to the unspoken, private thoughts of individuals today, these poems ask us to question the various ways we see ourselves — in life as well as in art, in science as well as in myth — and then they ask us to look again.