Selected Poems

Anania (The Sky at Ashland), also a gifted novelist and essayist, is a poet of place. ``Geography matters,'' he writes, and the poetry convinces us, quietly, that he is right. His geography is mostly Midwestern, though not exclusively; can be either rural or urban; and is often infused with a sense of the past, though not sentimentally. One of the strongest portions of the book is ``The Riversongs of Arion,'' a ten-part lyrical meditation on the Missouri River that alludes, as well, to Lewis and Clarke's exploration of the Platte during the early 19th century. In ``Riversongs'' plainness (a condition of landscape and a literary preference) ascends to a music without leaving behind its sources: sewage and catfish, time and detritus. Another memorable poem is ``The Fall,'' narrated by a man for whom slipping in snow becomes an opportunity to consider an aesthetics of survival. There are times when Anania's otherwise elegantly modest rhythms and meanderings of mind give way to a provisional flatness. But it's good to have a large selection of his work. (Sept.)