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Synopsis
The first collection in ten years by one of the most respected and loved poets in American poetry.
Publishers Weekly
Kizer's distinctly irreverent voice, left-leaning politics and mastery of the poetic craft are all showcased in this selection of her poetry and translations spanning a decade. Her frequent use of first-person narrative sounds a more autobiographical than confessional tone. The speaker (who calls herself, in "Fin-de-Sicle Blues," an "old lady") considers her past: youthful hatred of Franco while visiting his war memorial; a longtime friend's battle with cancer and death; and figures from childhood such as a beloved, inscrutable Swedish nanny. Along the way, Kizer employs everything from slanted rhymes to venerable forms like the villanelle and pantoum with a chatty grace that makes the intricacy of her structures all but invisible. Some poems emit a clear whiff of political correctness; e.g., "On a Line from Valry," which takes the French poet's line, "Tout le ciel vert se muert," and turns it into a lament for the environmental destruction brought by the Gulf War. Usually, however, Kizer's ample wit and formal dexterity distinguish her as a poet not merely of sensitivity but, more importantly, of fine sensibility. She is absolutely in her element when translatingand spoofing the act thereof. "In Hell with Virg and Dan," her version of Dante's Canto VXII, was rejected"quite properly," she concedesfrom the Ecco Press's volume of contemporary poets' translations of The Inferno for "not fitting in." In it, she wields her so-called "Antique Hipster" style: "Yo, Dan, just give a look at this repulsive creature/ Called Fraud, the wall-buster; He's the prime polluter." This is priceless, quintessential Kizer. (Sept.)