Death is the Place: Poems

Bronk, author of ABA-winning Life Supports , is a stubbornly independent presence in contemporary American poetry, writing spare, colloquial, accessible verse of philosophical depth. ``We are here like castaways from who knows where. / And who knows where is here?'' he asks in this collection's ``Housing the Homeless,'' and concludes, ``we have to make the best of it.'' In ``Worksong'' he concedes, ``The little we know or do doesn't make the form / and nature of things. The form and nature of things / is something we'll never know.'' Yet mystification at the human predicament does not lead to mysticism or despair. The poet seeks knowledge with a shrewd, quiet confidence in our ability to make sense, if only partially, of experience: ``Of course, we were fooled / but sleep will tell me what the powerful / magic was, sleep will show me the book / and let me read the language for myself.'' (Nov.)