Lunatic Engine

My debut collection of poetry was published by Turnstone Press in the fall of 2020. it is the product of more work and effort of more people than I ever imagined could go into book of poetry. Though the launch was virtual, the book is physical and you can get your hands on a copy via the methods describe below. Not sure you're interested? Check out the back cover blurb as well as some of the amazingly kind words of some amazingly kind people:
Slow planetary rotation, the push and pull of the moon, a Book–Paul Pearson’s debut collection of poems lays before readers a mapping and re-mapping of the familiar systems of order we rely on to survive the human experience. Reflecting on the principles set down by both Galileo and the Church, Lunatic Engine directs our gaze to the heavens, to the childhood home, to the womb, to the quiet moments of our daily lives to contemplate what comfort is offered by doctrines when staring down the barrel of birth, death, and everything in between.
If you're in the Edmonton area, drop me a DM or an email and we can arrange to meet somewhere in town, with masks, and I can sign your book and we can say hi in person. I am dying to see you!
For those of you who don’t live in Edmonton, I encourage you to buy the book at your local independent book store. Barring that, it is available at all major online retailers. I also have a limited number of copies available that I can personalize and mail to you for the low, low price of $20. Again send me a DM or an email.
Find the book at your local bookseller or online at:

Some kind words about the book:

Lunatic Engine is a book of orbits, of wayward paths traced around the gravitational bodies of childhood, parenthood, marriage, religion, art, and science. These are inventive poems in which ninjas fight Dutch elm disease, eyelashes are keys to understanding aerodynamics, and children free angels from river ice. At once moving and heady, Paul Pearson has written a remarkable book that will keep you looking over your shoulder into the heavens.
—Adam Dickinson
The Lunatic Engine of Paul Pearson’s dynamic first book pulses & revs across many different ‘scapes: the conflict between science & religion, a subtly personal exploration of how one comes to terms with such, especially as a parent, a vision of the world as it is & as it might be. This engine takes readers to the moons of Jupiter & to the poet’s backyard, stepping delicately through a forest of footnotes turning into new poems, & pushing the lyric into new configurations along the way. Both theologically & scientifically attuned & emotionally acute, Lunatic Engine torques its power with subtle grace.
—Douglas Barbour
[R]eading the poems … made me feel, as Emily Dickinson put it, “as if the top of my head were taken off.”
—Dava Sobel

Some multimedia links:

Reading 2 poems on rob mclennan’s “periodicities blog”
https://youtu.be/WFT7sFY4JBs
I answer a few questions on Emil Tiedmann’s “I Heart Edmonton Blog” http://www.iheartedmonton.ca/2020/11/poet.html
I had the honour of being the subject of Episode 77 of Sam Illingworth’s fantastic podcast, “The Science of Poetry”
https://scipoetry.podbean.com/e/episode-77-lunatic-engine/
A fun schmooze with Lee Ellen on her Facebook page “Schmoozing with Poets” https://www.facebook.com/Schmoozing-with-Poets-102867431396698
I “slip into poetry” with my reading list on the 49th Shelf blog
https://49thshelf.com/Lists/Members/2020-44/Slipping-Into-Poetry-A-List-by-Paul-Pearson
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