Gravida

The lyrics in Sue Standing’s False Horizon quietly celebrate the lust that is living, the lust that is memory. “The risks we're taking aren’t really risks/ Orange trees. Umbrella Pines. Wisteria.” These poems, some of which are set in the far reaches of Africa and India, argue for the primacy of the present tense, a present tense that shines erotically out from under the beautiful drapery of a manifold rich and cultural world history. Therefore, False Horizons is a book full of sensations. And yet the world remains elusive and mysterious. “In the moonlight I can see the shadow of a tree that is no longer there.” Standing writes a wonderfully understated poetry about the intimacies of experience. She says, “I need a life that won’t diminish.”

SUE STANDING'S previous poetry books are Amphibious Weather (Zephyr Press, 1981) and Deception Pass (Alice James Books, 1984). Director of the Creative Writing Program at Wheaton College, she teaches creative writing and African literature. She lives in Cambridge, Mass.