Catherine Pierce's stunning fifth collection is alive with creatures: blue herons and spiny orbweavers, questioning wolves and very human Beasts. These vivid, tender poems-- of earth and animal, pandemic and family, rage, longing, and sea-deep love-- urge us to remember and fight for our vital interconnectedness. " How could I be any way but staggered?" writes Pierce of the wild world, before acknowledging the paradox of loving the earth as it's dying: " What I want is to know about endings and still love each wingbeat, each shade / of the boundless, darkening sky." Dear Beast is a love letter to our planet and its creatures, and a song of empathy for the beastly human animals that we are.