The Island

The title of this ambitious book (and of its powerful second section) refers to Spike Island, a prison in Ireland where the Scottish-born Canavan teaches. But her title quickly accumulates meaning as the collection progresses further, coming to suggest Ireland itself-an island whose people and places are the poet's central subjects-and to serve as a metaphor for the forms of imprisonment that can bind the human spirit. The poet explores lives confined by history, nature, gender and ``unvoiced, private tragedy.'' As she puts it, ``Even stones have spirits'' awaiting ``a touch,.../ to reveal in a wild burst/ their imprisoned life.'' Canavan's language is straightforward and, with a few minor exceptions, effective in addressing a broad range of social realities, from the violence in Northern Ireland to the catastrophe of Chernobyl. For her, matters public and private, personal and political, inevitably intersect, much as unlikely people may still mingle: ``Under the skin they too/ were savages: afraid of the dark,/ touching for luck, believing in miracles.'' (Sept.)