Lusions (Review Copy)

The poems in this volume traverse time. From prehistory and the "Birth of God (from an Early Photograph)" to the construction of a suburban mall, Ragan is searching for reason and sense, in the flow of events, the passage of days. "It was to be a simple creation. An exercise at most/ of mischief, to play at quarks like building blocks,/ replenished and diminished, and by its cycle/ a god might gain domain. We would call it nature." Once God creates human nature, the poems collect moments of life, from a gazelle's "Birthing a Daughter into the Holocene Epoch," to man's simple but never-ending wars against his lawn. The rewards are many here. "Let all buckets fill, all loss be light./ I saw two girls weaving rainbows in their eyes,/ and daughtering in me their dreams, I grew/ astonished by all conception,/ the frail grandeur of life." Recommended for serious poetry collections.?Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
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