Dancing Moons
Grade 7 Up?Wood has organized her cycle of poems in homage to Native American philosophy around the Twelve Great Paths of the Moon of the Pueblo Indians. Each section is preceded by a meditation (January's Man Moon begins?"January's great path of the moon is solitude. Each day is part of an infinite puzzle, interlocked with all the preceding days and the ones that follow."). Within the section, each poem is accompanied by a stunning painting that is also inspired by Native American mythology. The book is visually gripping and gorgeous; its clean typeface and sharp white borders set off perfectly both paintings and text. Unfortunately, while Wood clearly has a deep devotion to and respect for Native American philosophy, as she so eloquently demonstrated in War Cry on a Prayer Feather (Doubleday, 1979; o.p.), her own words in this collection ring more of New Ageisms that seep into adult conversations than poetry. She writes in "Invitation to Life"?"I invite you to life/and you send regrets...I'll issue no more invitations/to you. The party's been/ cancelled, the guests won't arrive/in time to find me having/A dance all my own. You see,/I invited myself to my life/and finally accepted." This book, although written with noble intentions, should be declined.?Kathleen Whalin, Greenwich Country Day School, CTCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.