C. D. Wright takes her title from a line of legal defense, peculiar to Texas courts, in which it is held that if a man kills before having had time to cool after receiving an injury or an insult he is not guilty of murder.

"Cooling Time" is a new type of book, an unruly vigil that is an interconnected memoir-poem-essay about contemporary American poetry. Ever focused on "possibilities," Wright demonstrates that the search for models becomes a search for alternatives, and thereby defines the terms by which poets can chart their own course.

"These are some of the things I have touched in...