First Among Beautiful Stars

First Among Beautiful Stars, by Emmett Wheatfall, is a book of poetry. These lyrical meditations invite the reader to experience awe, wonderment, and a sense of oneness by proposing that what comes in darkness becomes light. Wheatfall finds sanctuary in his stargazing. “And the moon, shining high among the stars, went / from being half-moon to a full one.” In the title poem for First Among Beautiful Stars, Wheatfall looks both within and to the cosmos for sanctuary, considers stars everywhere, even floating in his breakfast cereal. Contemplative, concise, and rhythmic, Wheatfall’s poetry pays homage to tiny creatures and galaxies, and the divine of just sitting in his “living room / front door open / …my world quiet within /”.