Trying to make sense of a disordered world, Stefanie Wortman's debut collection examines works of art as varied as casts of antique sculpture, 19th-century novels, and even scenes from reality television to investigate the versions of order that they offer. These deft poems yield moments of surprising levity even as they mount a sharp critique of human folly. "Intensity of heart, intensity of mind, flowering as one: Stefanie Wortman's poems redeem 'wit' back to its root meaning of 'insight' or 'vision, ' the same root as the Sanskrit 'veda.' For example: the resonance of 'shades' when the...