Belongings: Poems

An ambitious, intricately wrought corona of sonnets ponders the nature of belonging in every sense of the word.

Belongings as possessions, as the history and furnishings of a life, and as the places in which life itself happens are the preoccupations at the heart of this affecting collection. Moving from memories of a childhood apartment to mourning for the poet's mother, Belongings explores the question: "Where, how, and to what do you belong?

Library Journal

The title poem in Gilbert's seventh collection is a 14-part sonnet sequence on the themes of loss and possessions, considering how our things define us and ironically persist even after we're gone. Too often the word choice seems pedantic, as in the sixth sonnet: "crumpled Kleenex reading glasses coins/ and comb she always carries in that purse." In the second section (a series of night poems), Gilbert strikes more imaginative chords. In "Night Cow," she writes "mournful and O so desole-/ under a buttery grinning/ moon, without/ a moo of her own." Gilbert's poems soar when she combines her unique view of the natural world with language play and a deep emotional resonance. Despite the sorrow that these poems record, Gilbert often returns to a feeling of hope. In "January Meadow"-itself a subset of another long poem-Gilbert writes, "silence of cypresses/ upholding sheaves of needles-here they are!-/ like gifts of darkness to a sky whose light's/ so fierce and clear it arches toward forever." Recommended for contemporary collections.-Doris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, IN Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Sandra M. Gilbert, the author of six previous poetry collections and the winner of an American Book Award, lives in Berkeley, California.