Marshmallow Clouds: Two Poets at Play Among Figures of Speech

Former poet laureate Kooser and poet Wanek give life to inanimate objects in this collection of poems structured around expressions and the elements. In sections organized by Fire, Water, Air, and Earth, an overturned boat appears to be “peering out at the meddlesome world,” while a harp is “a great golden moth.” Some metaphors are lighthearted (“Oh, sandwich delicious, my book!”); others acknowledge trauma (“the place in your chest/ where it clawed you like a badger”). Jones echoes the authorial duo’s restraint, and the speaker’s rural familiarity with owls, meteors, plows, and more; contrasting hues provide drama, as in scenes of a bleached moon in a dark winter sky, or a red shirt against a blue sofa. The poems evoke interior perception, reveal life through the poetic gaze, and give voice to “the soft singing that goes on and on.” Ages 10–up. (Mar.)