Hari Alluri shines in these pages with his sheer, unbridled obligation to muddy joy, his presence on the page, and in life. The magic in Our Echo of Sudden Mercy is the sublime ordinary: coffee grounds on bare heels, a lover's touch, the sharp loss of a wondrous friend, the tension and blessings and lessons of responsibility to self and responsibility to others. A radical ode to a life worth living, these poems turn and swivel and spin in the kitchen while the water boils, refusing to be one thing, to be anything you'd expect, refusing to tell one story. In this uncynical marvelous unabashed sentimentality for our own bodies, for our own flesh, for our own bleary eyed waking, for our own blessed uncertainty, the poems return us, gently, to sit on the bank of the river and recognize our own bright selves, even in our demons, even in the gaping absences we must acknowledge. Read these poems, bask in Hari Alluri's presence, eat something sweet, drink something tart, rewrite your story.

-Seema Reza, author of A Constellation of Half-Lives

Our Echo of Sudden Mercy is a clarion call, the fire this time, grandma's hands, cool water, the extended play version, a gift, a deep sigh, a murmuring embrace. This brilliant ember, may it catch a fire in the minds, hearts and hands of many a reader.

-Khari Wendell McClelland, creator of Freedom Singer