Rumors of Separate Worlds: Poems

This second volume of poetry is primarily for those intrigued by the Pulitzer Prize-winning psychiatrist's nonfiction ( Children of Crisis ). Here Coles turns to his own experiences, and the humanity of his vision redeems the flatness of his verse. ``Remembering a World,'' the first section, consists of elegies; in ``Miss Avery's Class,'' the narrator recalls his fifth-grade teacher discussing Abraham Lincoln: ``Washington was the father, / He the son, who died / For us to be free, you and me.'' Transformation is the theme throughout the second part, ``Meeting Worlds,'' encompassing Coles's travels among the poor of Managua, who ``watch their sons become Sandinistas,'' as well as the narrator's Ohio-born wife, who moves South and evolves into ``a Dixie partner.'' The last section, ``On the Day Jesus Christ Was Born,'' is a 12-poem sequence evoking Christmases spent in such diverse locations as Belfast, New Mexico and Soweto. (Oct.)