Apocrypha

Poems deal with such themes as landscapes, the last days of Christ, and the imperfect world

Solid in their craft, these poems are religious without being the least dogmatic or parochial. A sequence on the last days of Christ contains an image of the empty tomb, "From which the bridegroom rose surprised/ By desire and the effort a body required,/ By the aftermath of too much love." Pankey is a poet as steeped in the Bible as Emily Dickinson: even "A Weekend Gardener" becomes an Eve, "at home/ in the garden, by which she takes to mean the world." Occasionally remote, leaning too much toward the abstract, Pankey is at his best as a sharp observer, noticing that dogwood blossoms "are not candid white,/ But a constellation washed/ In a splash of watered wine." Many poems, "Exegesis" and the title poems among them, reveal both a keen wit and a deep appreciation of scripture as story. For contemporary poetry collections, especially where religious themes are appreciated.
- Kathleen Norris, formerly with Lemmon P.L., S.D.
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