Overpacked for the Afterlife: Haiku by David M Boyer

From the back cover:

Reading Overpacked for the Afterlife made me feel quite at home from the beginning, but as it is with David Boyer's writing, the cup isn't where you put it, someone moved your favourite chair and reality as you perceived it changes meaning: the unexpected happens and fills you with wonder and joy because writing like this happens. As the editor of "Bones - journal for the short verse" I have always treasured the material David Boyer sent me and have happily published his poems in the journal.-Johannes S. H. Bjerg - writer and editor

Most of what you need to know about Overpacked for the Afterlife you can deduce from the title: the poetry displays both a sense of transcendence and a sense of humor, deploying concrete, evocative language to place the reader in a familiar situation and then disrupt her expectations, usually to the effect of enlightenment, delight, or both. Boyer has us noticing "the colors in a pile of crushed cars" and contemplating "night shift at the poison factory," has us realizing, maybe for the first time, that there are "animals you see only when they die." As is usually my experience with the poetry that most moves me, I found myself taking frequent breaks from reading Overpacked in order to let my brain cool from the excitement of the fresh language and perspectives I was encountering-it took me days to wend my way through the book, and then I turned back to the beginning and started again. -Melissa Allen

Boyer has established himself as a unique voice in the field of haiku with this finely crafted collection of verses. There is a delicate balance in the contrast between moments of sublimated beauty and the delightful wit and weirdness that are so characteristic of the genre. A memorable collection worth reading and rereading, like all good haiku, these are poems that will deepen with time. -Clayton Beach, co-editor of Heliosparrow Poetry Journal