Often the intersection of technology and literature is focused on the inhuman nature of the former. Technology, we are told, is the absence of humanity; we fear that it dulls our senses and distracts our focus. Perhaps we do succumb to its conveniences and contrivances. Yet books like If All the World and Love Were Young reveal a more complex possibility. Sometimes, in the face of grief, we might be lit by mysterious sources. Stephen Sexton began writing the book in 2015 as a light-hearted trip through the levels of Super Mario World, a game for the Super Nintendo system. Yet he discovered, like other poets pondering the inner mind of their youths, that his creative vehicle revealed fraught memories about his childhood and family.

Sexton is a deft poet of grief.