Streets Enough to Welcome Snow

Actaeon: Eleven Glosses On An Alibi Home Drown Kind Regards Providence In Winter Psyche & Eros Regaining The Day Remembering Into Sleep Saltwoman This First Snow -- Table of Poems from Poem FinderThe poetry of Rosemarie Waldrop-I hesitate to say it, not wanting to pigeonhole her work -belongs to the development in contemporary American poetry know by some as "language-centered" poetry or "Language Poetry," a linguistic and psychological poetics whose practitioners reside primarily on the East and West coasts. Yet I do say it because upon reading Waldrop's Streets Enough to Welcome Snow I am struck by its differences from most of the poetry currently being written and published in this country. Most noticeable is the reluctance to embrace the narrative line, to write a neo-realistic poem, avoiding reportage of events occurring in particular places during particular times. What strikes the reader at first is the seemingly inpenetrable surfaces which, upon repeated readings, do begin to yield their meaning. Dispensing with most rationalistic thought or expository logic, Waldrop's poems depend more upon sound ordering, puns, allusions, and collaging of lines. Consequently, words are jarred from their conventional contexts. Personal or private revelation -the "I" of the poem-gives way to the public recoding of language as it happens. The unnatural, snytax-less diction of a poem such as "Remembering Into Sleep" forces us to reenter the poem, knowing we must rely on the context emerging during the reading of that poem: "A poem, / like trying/ to remember, is a movement/ of the whole body./ You follow the/fog/into more fog. /Maybe the door ahead/ divides/the facts/from natural affection. /How/can I know. I meet/too many/in every mirror" (p. 23) . Unfortunately, the poems are often devoid of emotive/ emotional impact, remaining concerned with form and linguistic play. However, libraries interested in representing the full range of contemporary American poetry would do well to have Waldrop's collection on their shelves. -- From Independent Publisher