Lunatic Engine is a book of orbits, of wayward paths traced around the gravitational bodies of childhood, parenthood, marriage, religion, art, and science. These are inventive poems in which ninjas fight Dutch elm disease, eyelashes are keys to understanding aerodynamics, and children free angels from river ice. At once moving and heady, Paul Pearson has written a remarkable book that will keep you looking over your shoulder into the heavens.

– Adam Dickinson

The Lunatic Engine of Paul Pearson’s dynamic first book pulses & revs across many different ‘scapes: the conflict between science & religion, a subtly personal exploration of how one comes to terms with such, especially as a parent, a vision of the world as it is & as it might be. This engine takes readers to the moons of Jupiter & to the poet’s backyard, stepping delicately through a forest of footnotes turning into new poems, & pushing the lyric into new configurations along the way. Both theologically & scientifically attuned & emotionally acute, Lunatic Engine torques its power with subtle grace.

– Douglas BArbour

How thrilling—how gratifying—to discover that a work of mine, inspired by the bond between Galileo and his daughter, has in turn ignited the imagination of Paul Pearson, inciting these starry new poems of familial love.

– Dava Sobel