Under 35: New Genera

Gathers poems by thirty-seven of the most promising new American poets

Each poem in this diverse anthology reflects its speaker's manipulation of his/her environment, and assessment of his/her relationship to a cultural milieu. Thus, the poems share a variety of themes: love, political morality, redemption. Two of the most exciting voices are Lucie Brock-Broido, who writes compellingly of our attachment to divinity ("I will betray as a god betrays, / With tenderheartedness. I've got this mystic streak in me"), and Wayne Koestenbaum, who combines a lyrical mysticism with imperative, concrete memory (about his music teacher, he notes, "he'd shout, 'Good show!'. . . / as if his bandroom were Tangier. He led us / in a tango so tranced / it tore my life into parts"). Given the arbitrariness of the criteria for inclusion (age and nationality), it is unsurprising that some poets--Jane Oliensis, for one--are banal or pedestrian in their concepts and techniques. Christopher is the author of a novel in verse, Desperate Characters .
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

One might glean from this anthology that to be an American poet under 35 means holding an advanced degree in creative writing; receiving state or national grants; and having at least one volume published by a university press or under the auspices of a prestigious competition. Yet however hard one might look here for a shared aesthetic, none is to be found. The anthology represents no "school" of poetry, no generational manifesto. Instead, when choosing, Christopher tried for "the poem that sends a tingle up the spine." Consequently, we find Donald Revell's carefully crafted sonnet on Emily Dickinson's mirror just a few pages away from David Trinidad's "Meet the Supremes." Is there an Elizabeth Bishop or James Wright among these 21 women and 16 men? We can't be sure, but that shouldn't keep us from having our spines occasionally tingled.
- Thom Tammaro, Moorhead St. Univ . , Minn.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.