Postscripts: Poems

Poems deal with representation, winter, language, love, art, observation, and literature

"Stark on the covers of slick magazines/Where landscapes look too beautiful for words/ The wilderness excels at making scenes." Hine works hard at his poems, and at times they flow majestically, seamlessly. Other times, however, they give the impression of being overworked. This first collection of lyric poems in 13 years is surprisingly short. Hine's vision is wonderful, fresh, and clear, but too often the lines are heavy with cheap decoration. Nearly every poem incorporates a bit of foreign language, and the rich brocade of his English is often difficult to read aloud: "Another mirror represents,/ Askew, a world of difference/ Whose optimum experiments/ Are soon surpassed/ In retrospect, that commonsense/ Iconoclast." Hine has a keen ear, and sometimes the music alone of these poems is enough to win you over; at their worst, though, the poems here seem mere wordplay.
- Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
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