Dark Wild Realm

In the 38 intense but prosaic lyrics, Collier, a National Book Critic's Circle Award finalist, invokes an ominously mythic vision of reality reminiscent of the work of Ted Hughes. Poems centered on birds ("something bold, big-billed, and broad towered above them") alternate with reflections on the mysterious operations of nature, invocations of the dead ("Dangerously frail is what his hand was like/ when he showed up at our house,/ three or four days after his death") and intimate recollections of love: "Look how far into the day we've moved// and yet we're still in bed, awake, silent." Collier (The Ledge, 2002) is at his most arresting when these solemn meditations give way to metaphor, as in "Invocation to the Heart," in which Romeo and Juliet become figures of love's difficult awakenings: "Remember that each of us/ lay dead awhile/ waiting for the other." (Apr. 2)