In the best poems in Troupe's latest collection—following 2002's Transcircularities—
which is organized into seven thematic sections, this prolific author finds that "magic comes when you least expect it." A group of fervent and timely political poems, as well as a section comprising a series of lush, lyrical poems centered largely in the author's part-time residence in the French West Indies are the collection's strongest pieces. Troupe's trademark use of "eye" in place of "I" can be, at the very least, distracting, and some of the poems dedicated to famous subjects (Richard Pryor, Tiger Woods) become too expository as passion loses out to reverence. The extended title poem that closes the book is a call for "a poetry of openness in america, now," rallying the reader toward a 21st-century linguistic inclusiveness: "the american voice is not white or black, european or asian,/ middle eastern or african, but mestizo, fused with jambalaya." (Oct.)
