This Minute is a connected whole, in which the verse is driven by strong intellectual excitement, evident in the energetic movement of the lines and in a vocabulary that switches easily from the colloquial to the exact. There is an urgent voice, felt close at hand. And there is a skill in handling and matching the size of a poem to its subject that makes each invigorating to read-one arrives slightly out of breath. These poems convey a metaphysicalmeaning as well as a bodily intimacy. They are luminous, discovering rather than manufacturing their metaphors as the most exact way of...

This Minute is a connected whole, in which the verse is driven by strong intellectual excitement, evident in the energetic movement of the lines and in a vocabulary that switches easily from the colloquial to the exact. There is an urgent voice, felt close at hand. And there is a skill in handling and matching the size of a poem to its subject that makes each invigorating to read-one arrives slightly out of breath. These poems convey a metaphysicalmeaning as well as a bodily intimacy. They are luminous, discovering rather than manufacturing their metaphors as the most exact way of...

Start, Jean Gallagher's third full-length collection, turns to the world of Greek mythology, using the figures of Demeter and Persephone to explore the mysteries of motherhood, loss, grief, and renewal. Her brilliant concision and riveting music bring the ancient narrative sharply into the present, transforming it to a vision that feels thrillingly contemporary and personal.