Drive, They Said: Poems about Americans and Their Cars

Skip the editor's introduction, even though it does establish context (``Driving, then--relentless, continual, necessary, rolling motion--became such a universal experience in our century it was inevitable that it would find permanent expression in American poetry''), and just dive into this fabulous collection. Start anywhere--with sections on ``Men in Cars,'' ``Women in Cars,'' ``Driving into Yourself,'' ``Stopping by the Side of the Road,'' ``Driving as Metaphor,'' and ``On the Bus,'' the reader is treated to a wild ride with 98 poets who know their cars, know their roads and know how to write. Look for James Tate's ``In the Realm of the Ignition'' (``There is an X on this window, / Almost exquisite, the slight madness, / kiss and forgiveness''); Martha McFerren's ``Leaving in 1927'' (``You're very frightened. / You feel so good''); Joyce Carol Oates's ``Night Driving'' (``you love the enormous trucks floating in spray''); Stephen Dunn's ``Truck Stop: Minnesota'' (``I'm tempted to come back at her / with java /but I say coffee , politely''); Derek Walcott's ``Upstate'' (``Sometimes I feel sometimes / the Muse is leaving, the Muse is leaving America'')--these are just some of the rewards. For more than 300 pages, the volume consistently delivers the poetic goods; it's a continuously engaging collection of Americana, poetic reverie, and flat-out, high-octane good times. It will make you wonder, as in Howard Nemerov's ``Fugue,'' ``Was there never a world where people just sat still?'' (May)