Find Me as the Creature I Am

Wild, pastoral, and deeply patient, Yoon’s beautiful third collection (after A Cruelty Special to Our Species) explores inherited family tales, the violence of love, and the complexities of the self’s becoming (“I want my life/ to be a poem”). Throughout, Yoon evokes the often paralyzing duality of desire: “when I say we are beasts,/ is that a metaphor?” (“What Carries Us”). Inviting and spacious, these pages accomplish as much in their silences as they do in their words. Yoon’s stanzas are often brief, serene, and lyrical, less preoccupied with holding the reader’s attention than inviting reflection. The voices here are fraught and familiar, particular and universal: “I want nothing to change, then wait for my life to change” (“Gray Areas”). Her speakers are unabashed and yearning, bearing witness to the beast in each person, as well as to the lifelong task of self-reckoning: “You find me as the creature that I am,/ staring up at you” (“Next Lives”). These are skillful, meditative poems. (Oct.)