Under Albany (Salt Modern Lives)
One of the major language poets (and now an ardent poetry blogger), Silliman has previously referred to his poemAlbany, published in 1981, as his autobiography. Here he uses the spare sentences of that language-era work as starting points for yet another round of self-fashioning. The book closes with the sentence "It is not possible to  'describe a life,' "; what Silliman gives us is not descriptions of the antiwar protests of the late '60s, his various living arrangements or childhood in working-class California, but the infinitely branching chains of event and idea of which a life is composed. When Silliman notes that the first lines ofKetjakwere inspired by a performance of Steve Reich'sDrummingor explains that his work in the prison reform movement has taught him "the sense of time as urgency without future," he does so in a manner, wonderfully particular to his work, that shows how process makes the person. Having recently completed his 26-volume (!) poemThe Alphabet, this telescoping of life into language and then of language into further sentential florescence seems particularly appropriate. Under a sign of his own making, Silliman offers a brilliantly readable portrait of his poetics and of the places and times of his life.(Apr.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.