Hormone of Darkness

Lyrical and metaphysical riches gleam in Otta’s incandescent latest (after Antimateria). Compiled from four of Otta’s previous books, the poems saunter from the personal to the universal and back again. Frequent objects of study include the planets and stars, music and nightclubs, sex and love. Otta’s voice is utterly convincing across her varied tones and registers, from her mystical utterances (“Find the future/ in the part of heaven/ you can’t see”) to her cheeky aphorisms (“Let’s try this:/ If you’re dead blink twice/ I promise the second time will be incredible”). The best of these poems display a genius for combining existential insight with gleeful ornament. Throughout, Otta takes on beauty—of the body, poetry, music, and the galaxy—as a subject of serious inquiry and a path to transcendent truth: “This position—looking/ straight into the eyes of infinity/ Without blinking is so relaxing/ It reveals the electric mantle/ Where night samples sunlight” (“The Joy of Living”). The result is a magnificent collection from a vital poet. (Oct.)