Releasing Serpents

While the Chicano community has long respected Zamora's ( Restless Serpents ) writings, this volume seems intended to introduce her to more diverse readers. Does her writing have anything significant to say to this larger audience? It appears not. Nancy Vogeley's introduction fluctuates among biographical detail, an academic criticism and a discussion of Chicano writing in general. Zamora is a poet for whom English words have remained ``turds of the golden goose-- / words we picked up, wiped off, / cleaned up.'' At the same time, she's well-read in English literature and willing to borrow inspiration from writers such as Robinson Jeffers and Theodore Roethke. Spanish poems and phrases pop up, with no attempt at translation. She is perhaps the angriest Chicana poet most Anglo readers will have encountered to date. Curses punctuate the poems; a woman sitting outside after dinner casually decides to kill the family goat; fog makes one speaker suspect there are moans lurking within it; angels are ``stiff-winged.'' Sparse on both lyricism and imagery, many pieces here are little more than cautionary or humorous tidbits. (Jan.)