Dark Songs: Slavehouse and Synagogue(c)

Rising from the colonial history and culture of the islands of the Caribbean, Lieberman's poems focus on man-made catastrophes: the U.S. involvement in Grenada, the slave trade, leaders overthrown in political uprisings. Often, however, the speakers of his tales are hazily represented, diminishing a work's effectiveness. The title poem recounts the modern-day removal of one island's Jewish population by its governor, ""from one tiny Carib/ outpost to the next."" The final section, an ironic, lively consideration of the ""vast monkey clans of Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis,"" prompts readers to view the monkeys much as slaves and natives were and are seen by past and present usurpers. This and the shorter, apolitical poems, are the volume's best offerings. (Mar.)