Star Ledger

Hull ( Ghost Money ) inhabits a decaying universe swirling with trashed hopes and the ashes of burned-out desire. She often uses the metaphor of indifferent, moribund cities to convey a sense of promise unfulfilled, of ``crippled dreams'' and inexplicably wasted lives. Hers is a world where nothing is sure, where ``one minute you're dancing,'' and the next, ``you're flying / through plate glass and the whole damn town is burning.'' The subject of these poems is the poet's life, one that involves a search for connections between people and things that will give a clue to the meaning of our entropic existence. In ``Aubade,'' one of the keenest and most accessible of the poems, Hull confronts the essential loneliness of the human condition. The speaker is gardening at 5:05 a.m., and notices her neighbor exercising on his fire escape. Fantasizing a life of emptiness for this man, she contemplates calling out, `` It is I / the one for whom you have been waiting. / Come down. Let us join forces. '' The poet's wayward voice perfectly matches her vision, her images and settings often stumbling into each other for chaotic effect. This is an intensely felt, finely wrought body of work. (Apr.)