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Wright’s powerful latest (after Thirteen Quintets for Lois) revels in the contradictions of language, mixing disparate philosophies and mythologies in a pressure cooker of lyrical skill. In lines that move nonchalantly between languages and cultures, Wright’s poems prod at the limits of rationality, proposing instead “a sign in flux” more adaptable to the experience of reality. While the scope of the cultural referents can feel overwhelming at times, the poems reward the attentive reader with many moments of epiphany; for example, Wright’s description of art’s awe-inspiring potency merges with the poet’s own creative impulse in the lines “We live astonished by music’s/ weight in fundamental motion,/ and the body’s apt invention/ of its meter, an eccentric’s/ just inscription.” Among the various mythic figures who roam these pages seeking connection are subtle allusions to African American and Afro-diasporic literary traditions that help ground the poems: “The mask lives a double life, shaken/ by a dry and falling body, the dearth/ of arresting sign that leaves no token.” This meticulous collection offers playful enlightenment to those who travel its labyrinths. (Nov.)