Published by Phantom Rooster Press ([log in to unmask]), this 28-page chapbook is attractively illustrated with sketches by the author. The poems are similarly attractive, often graceful sketches in their own right, as in the delicate Maple Leaf Bridge Sheep Stop (after Jang Ji. China, 800 A.D.), which I quote in full:
the moon sinks
a crow screams
all is frozen
even the sky
I face a bank of red leaf maples
a lone fishing boat light
and sleepless worry
at midnight
outside Soo Jo city
a Shan Mountain Temple bell
sounds against our boat
I am a stranger here
Boats, indeed, are a recurring image in POEMS, as in these lines from Opened More:
our earthy vessel
dips and rises
dripping sea
or these, from Our Country:
our boat slides
under treefall
risks wet canyon walls
Everywhere, this sort of acute observation occurs, even ultimately of the eye itself, wryly observed:
we want to know
if it works with us
or against us
Everywhere as well is a robust sensuality, whether of the natural world or the human body, as in these lines from Reverse Palimpsest, describing the waking effect of a dream of poppies:
the scarlet explode
carries me again
to my dream mound
maidenhair curling
through thick moss
or these, from Ive Not Chosen to Leave You:
belly buttoned
shy and sly
breast tips
blind to touch
As above, Prince likes to play with internal and slant rhyme:
your hurt pours out
a chill grey moat
a snake around
our hot desire
(Spiced Wine)
But it is her use of imagery that captures the attention of the reader, as in the unlikely pairing of images in This Earthly Cycled Hope (perhaps the major poem of the collection)--a possum in a persimmon tree and a housepainter who torches the house he has just painted:
the possum who eats carrion
the lost soul who burns his job
a pair of images that is in turn set against that of a neglected house plant suddenly blooming
in spring
the moment to which
all deaths point
Oh, and for fans of Vile Boris, there is a love poem addressed to him (Catterings)!
Candice Ward
(Eye Operation)
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