Loosestrife: Poems
Dunn's new collection of poetry, the first since hisNew & Selected Poems 1974-1994, explores interior worlds of human loneliness and exterior worlds of Darwinian animal struggle. Broken relationships figure prominently in the human world, with a sense of loss that kills free will: "Everything was clear, and nothing much/the better for it./ They agreed it was a matter of caring,/ and each felt the dull courage that comes/ from caring less." With the animals, free will is absent anyway, and the savage realities come inevitably as instinct--as when a tiger cub raised by goats discovers its carnivorous and lethal nature. The common thread in many poems is the acknowledgment of a crushing determinism.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.