Frank Paino reviews
Radiant Obstacles
by Luke Hankins

“What are we / and by whose hand?” enquires the speaker of “The Sculptor.” It’s a question poet Luke Hankins turns his formidable intellect and talent to in both his first collection of poetry (Weak Devotions) and now his second, Radiant Obstacles. But readers shouldn’t come to Hankins’ work expecting easy answers or, indeed, any answers at all. It is, instead, the acknowledgement of our inability to rest in certainty which both torments and elates this poet.

A former fundamentalist Christian, Hankins lost his faith in a vengeful male deity (he tends to refer to any possible divinity using feminine pronouns) but also, perhaps, in faith itself. 

Allow me
to accept
this April
afternoon’s
sunlight,
warm on
my arm, 
that simple
delight,
for what
it is—
pleasure
without
price.

(“Spring Prayer”)

And yet, Hankins cannot eschew contemplating “the absent Referent.” And it is precisely this relentless, naked searching that gives this collection its greatest power.

I walk around holding out my hands,
palms upturned, in a gesture
of bewilderment and surrender…

(“Even the River”)

In the book’s final piece, the truly remarkable “Ex Nihilo,” Hankins’ manages to sum up the evolution of his disbelief and his eventual capitulation to uncertainty which, rather than producing despair, reveals an openness to a new life…one quite possibly beautiful and, dare I say, redemptive in that beauty?

I sink into emptiness until I begin
to feel the divinity of the nothing.
Out of nothingness
a new life.
I cannot say how.

Regardless of your faith, or lack thereof, if you value poetry that ponders the “big questions,” while simultaneously paying exacting attention to craft, you will find Radiant Obstacles to be a worthy addition to your collection.  

Luke Hankins is the founder and editor of Orison Books. He is also an experienced editor at nationally recognized literary magazines (Asheville Poetry Review and Indiana Review). Hankins has published two poetry books, an essay collection, and a book of translations from the French. Luke also offers manuscript critique services (lukehankins.net).

Frank Paino is the author of three books of poetry. His newest, Obscura, is available from Orison Books. (frankpaino.net). He has received a number of awards for his poetry, including a 2016 Individual Excellence Award from The Ohio Arts Council, a Pushcart Prize and The Cleveland Arts Prize in Literature.