"The soul is more a precipice than an entity. Brant, in this adamant and tender collection, designs a grammar for that precipice--participial, declarative and headlong. His clarity is thrilling; his candor is very nearly unprecedented. These poems are marvelous." -Donald Revell "I applaud the voice of S. T. Brant in these poems that trust in depth, believe in conversations through time, in artistic pursuit, believe, despite everything, in search for truth even-or, perhaps, especially, in our pained, ruinous time. This is marvelous work." -Ilya Kaminsky "Blends the spirit of the Greeks singing to the muses with outtakes from Genesis. Through numbered ecstasies and the violences of memory, these poems search for love in the heart's empty theater... Full of beseeching prayer and longing for an unnamed you, this collection is a reminder of the sadness of eternity..." -Traci Brimhall "Fearless debut... A poet who sees mythic thresholds everywhere...The book feels like the existential battlefield of the Bhagavad Gita: an elemental space of fire, thunder, the soul... The possibility of revelation is always near... Melody in Exile is lightning in a bottle." - John Wall Barger, author of Resurrection Fail