John Ashbery calledย Reveilles, Nathan Hoksโs debut book, a โdazzlingโ collection and Hoks a poet whose โfine gradations of observation turn the reader into a barometer of strong subtleties like those of the weather, that can be minute even as they affect us powerfully.โย The poems in Hoksโs new book,ย The Narrow Circle, perform a similar magic.ย In associative lyrics and fabulist prose, Hoks explores inner and outer experiences.ย The poems frequently focus on the body as a membrane where everything becomes inside-outโwhere the โface disperses with angels of teeth and loam,โ where โsky comes out of the mouth,โ where a giant green worm โburrows a hole in the head,โ and where the heart is a vestibule that cannot be closed.ย Suites of pictures within the text further delineate this inward-outward pull, offering visualizations of interior voices and sketches of exterior shadows.