Emerald Ice: Selected Poems 1962-1987

This is my favorite collection from wild woman Wakoski because of its combinations of elements and its dark humor. Music is infused throughout the poems, with Beethoven presented as an angry father figure. The father motif is echoed and universalized in poems about George Washington who was "dull or hard to talk to," and of course THAT isn't classical." The King of Spain symbolizes the mysterious lover, a kind of Melrose-Place man who is ever the dream but never there to change the furnace filters when you need him to. A bawdy, smart and sassy collection with occasional twists of poignance that will wring your heart.