North Atlantic Black is a collection of contemplative, lyrical poems that explore issues of coming out, suicide, yearning, and male relationships.
Woven together, North Atlantic Black moves through different questions of masculinity encountered by the poet through the process of coming out. Early poems explore themes of masks, of theater, and of dressing and costume as means of escaping the traditional bounds of masculinity
North Atlantic Black further braids in concepts of home, how they relate to identity through heritage and expectation, and how they inform the poet’s thoughts on what it means for men to have relationships—how ideas of masculinity have imposed on the poet’s life, and weigh on the relationships he wishes to pursue. Throughout, the moody colors of the Maritimes and the North East, of sealing ports and cold, forested mountains, loom over these confessions and contemplations.
