Poetry. " In the elegant formulations of her second collection, THE AFTERIMAGE, Phillis Levin explores the gaps and forges the links between language, thought, and matter. She is an 'alchemist of the vernacular' whose clarities are hard-won and whose mindfulness is lit by a passionate flame. She has written a glowing book" -Edward Hirsch.

Reviews

The poems of Levin's second collection (after Temples and Fields) embrace loss and rapture. Meticulously observant, she captures the paradox of our connection with and distance from others. After sitting comfortably on a subway ride between two women, one reading a bible and one spinning a small globe, she encounters a man-``ill-kempt, jagged, harsh,/ And capable of violence...''-whose isolation suggests ``he'd never been touched/ By the world and its words.'' She readily sees the significant in such dailiness as making beet soup. Plumbing the classics, religious themes and personal memories, she searches almost religiously, although she rejects ``the easy/ Mysticism of my classmates'' and formulas for easy solace. Levin speaks powerfully from a place ``Between detachment and wonder.''

Levin's second book of poetry serves as a reminder that the classical themes of love, family, God?with references to the Bible, Homer, and Shakespeare?still have power when cast in a language that is sure of itself. As such, Levin is at her best when describing a world that is lost, whether it be the sound of a tinker's call, the atmosphere of a Greek symposium, or the transitory figures on a subway or bus: "Then we stopped/And I rushed through the doors and climbed/Into the afternoon light, where they hovered/a moment before dissolving into day." The approach can be riddling at times. In "The Landing," for instance, we learn that a blade of grass is "standing only for what it is." On the whole, however, the thrust is for clarity: "The happy poet cares about details, i.e.,/A blade of grass, a sigh, a drying gourd. Dangerous, adoring, absurd,/The happy poet struggles with a word." Recommended.?Steven R. Ellis, Pennsylvania State Univ. Libs., University Park
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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