Traveling with the Ghosts

The impressionistic latest from Radulescu weaves fragmentary poems that explore themes of time, memory, writing, and death. In “crossroad,” she writes, “frogs are frozen looking for a symbol/ for god/ I need a sentence to bring them back to life,” ending on the declaration, “the only way to Paradise/ is not to ask.” Indeed, Radulescu often evokes the power of language: “let me clean the air/ with a vowel/ or two & start/ the healing” (“invocation”) and “this is how shadow by shadow/ & void by void I put together/ a new sentence” (“day one”). Elsewhere, she alludes to religious motifs: Adam and Eve figure; “I speak your language god/ & you speak mine,” the poet declares in “I hung my poem in a tree”; “the swan floats in the air/ a template of an old god,” she announces in “in praise of spring.” Given the thematic concerns, it’s no surprise that she calls upon Rilke: “o,/ angels—/ and where/ the prayer/ goes—/ you in/ yourself/ small as/ a flake of/ snow/ huge as/ the word/ you say/ it” (“with rilke”). These meditative, metaphysical poems are rewardingly dense with surprising turns and images. (Dec.)