Creatures Who Smell the Wind

These poems are full of danger (of knives, of boiling water) and attraction (to honey, to the insides of flowers). Food is important: oysters, mushrooms, roots. Family is important, with dreamlike childhood recollections and collected lore, the presence of the past (parents, grandparents), and the recurring appearance of the poet's lively granddaughter, Ella. The poet draws on culture, too: myths (selkies), Americana (Fiesta ware), Native American lore, not to mention painters (Hopper, Cross, Hiroshige, Hokusai) and a number of poets and writers. Especially effective are the narrative poems, including stories inspired by paintings, by the Garden of Eden, by the assassination of Julius Caesar.