Dark Sky Question (Barnard New Women Poets Series)
It is through language more than any clear narrative structure that the poems in this first collection, winner of the 1997 Barnard New Women Poets Prize, evoke an eerie feeling of something gone awry: "A person can die of balance,/ just gleam like a squid/ and disappear." Elsewhere Szporluk speaks more clearly of violence: "And because of the cut, the distance of your life pours out,/ and because of the clouds/ like fat that surrounds you,/ you don't hear for a long time." Images of desolation create a tight weave, as a soft, persistent tone compels the reader to delve more deeply into their meaning. Even as we are warned that "in your rush to get in,/ you bruise the shape/of your body," we will be tempted to enter and reenter these poems. An excellent first collection.?Ann K. van Buren, New York Univ. Sch. of Continuing EducationCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.