In Epistles, Mark Jarman makes of language a powerful spiritual calculus, writing profoundly inventive proofs for the central mysteries of our existence. The tone is by turns dry, witty, passionate, somber, whimsical, and more-permeated always by a lucid intelligence. Intimate addresses to the reader, the poems issue from a speaker who at times resembles your next-door-neighbor, at others and angel or prophet: sometimes all three. Whatever the guise, we seem in the presence of one of God<U+2019>s messengers, speaking in a familiar idiom. And though he will not lie to make us feel better, he has our best interests at heart-he brings good news. “God,” Jarman says, “has committed you to memory.”