Yet these three books, rich in poems of missed chances and messed-up marriages, display a splendid drive. The range in each book is impressive - from short lyrics to longer discursive poems, which move from personal life to historical and political considerations.
Narrative poems prevail, and the storytelling is deft.
The silted bottom,'' she says in a strangely detached response to this episode. The actions are melodramatic, but the recording consciousness is steady. A long poem, ''Surviving,'' is a meditation on the woman artist's marriage in this century. Honey, I am not your thing, your property. An absolute endorsement of loving-kindness,'' she says in ''Everywoman Her Own Theology.'' The ''endorsement'' is one she is capable of rendering herself.