Gathering Sound

There is an appealing self-assurance in these poems---a poet is in charge though clearly aware of the slippery nature of experience. The poems tend to be narrative, often containing gratifying twists at the end, as in “He Caught Everything” in which the poet’s ambidextrous father, after we’re told of how he alternated the use of his hands in a variety of ways, the poem concludes with telling how he saved the day in a fire at the expense of both hands. There are many fine poems her: in an intriguing fantasy, “Romeo Gets There Firs,” we see Romeo in the after life waiting for his lover---a fascinating idea which is managed well. “The Fist Wife’s Lament in Late Winter” is a “left-handed elegy,” another fascinating idea in which the first wife speaks of her former husband who has died.