Love Lines: Poetry in Person

The 59 poems in this unusual volume invite young adults to think about love and its expression. Hearne tells us in her introduction that without poetry ""there would be holes in the human language.'' And whether love poems are about lovers, children, or oneself, ``whatever the texture, there is no better net of words to catch the complexities of loving.'' Some of the poems are romantic while others are erotic: the lovers lie naked in the garden, ``laced/ with arms and legs and love'' or are compared to fruit, ``full of blood,/ ripe, round, ready/ to open. Taste.'' But Hearne's view of love encompasses more than poems about affairs and their aftermath; she writes about love of family and friends, separation and death. Perhaps because the poems were written over a period of 25 years, the poet's voice is not always consistent or fully developed, but the mature reader will find Hearne's poems sensitive and intriguing. Ages 12-up. (September)