Fear of Subways Format: Paperback

With a combination of intellect and street smarts, Seaton ( The Sea Among the Cupboards ) has fashioned an intriguing volume of poetry depicting the hardship of contemporary urban life. New York is both bane and boon to the poet. Its stimuli stir Seaton's imagination into action, yet her psyche is battered and bruised by the devastating decay. Residingpk in Manhattan means witnessing theft and bloodshed firsthand and being assaulted by the sad sight of the homeless at every turn. Seaton articulates her fear of subways as a terror of the ``effortless extinction of the spirit / underground . . . It / connects palpably to suffocation, / a child's version of rape.'' She is fascinated and comforted by her black lesbian lover's racial heritage. After an evening watching Ghanaian dancing, the poet asks in wonderment, ``What does Africa / mean to a Black New Yorker?'' Seaton is skillful at poetic narrative, and her jarring images avoid sensationalism. Yet overall, these poems lack an emotional connectedness, any exploration of the numbness that city life induces in her. It's as if overexposure to New York's negativity has left her isolated and bewildered, unable to relate to what's happening around her.

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