cover image Poems, 1963-1988

Poems, 1963-1988

Bill Knott. University of Pittsburgh Press, $10.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8229-5416-3

In this markedly original collection, a variety of themes remains constant--the pleasures and difficulties of love, the struggle for empathy with others--all seen through a distinctly elegiac eye. At the same time that he bows to the probability of loss, Knott's ( Becos ) primary concern is emotional engagement. With puissance, he urges the acceptance of the world as a fractured reality in which value is determined by individual perception: ``The way the world is not / Astonished at you / . . . Leads me to think / That beauty is natural, unremarkable, / And not to be spoken of / Except in the course of things /. . . And the course of course of me / Astonished at you / The way the world is not.'' Juxtaposed with poems of conventional lengths are various ``Shorts/Excerpts''--series of succinct but memorable sentences: ``Our farewells lack the plausibility of our departures.'' The consequent syncopation in the volume ultimately serves to emphasize the moments of clarity throughout. (June)