Sunny Side Plucked: New and Selected Poems

A sharp wit dressed in small-town vernacular characterizes the new and selected poems of Higgins, an Irish poet who has published four collections in Ireland. She ironically depicts anti-idyllic scenes of rural working-class life and religious faith: ""I work at the Post Office. I hate my job."" Her subjects include domestic abuse, cardigan sweaters, prisoners, Petrarch and poverty. In addressing them, she avoids epistemological concerns, choosing instead to be a witness, a role she plays with skeptical humor abetted by snappy, epigrammatic remarks: ""No beating/ around the burning bush/ for this lassie."" Although some of her descriptive early poems lack bounce, Higgins finds a full-throated voice in later poems, such as ""Donna Laura,"" which begins: ""Petrarch you louser,/ I'm here plagued with the plague/ and you're off chasing/ scab free thighs."" Her tone turns nervier as her poems get more political. ""Butter Balls,"" one of her most accomplished poems, uses peppery, alliterative language to satire the ""unsocial smellfare"" of a butter-voucher scheme. Whether in jazzy jargon (""Typical jackdaw jaundice,/ clip-clopitty-clop/ and a black sail away"") or matter-of-fact narration, Higgins captures voices of her Ireland and releases them, subtly changed, into our hearing. (Apr.)