From Library Journal
Komunyakaa's poems create and populate a world in which the linchpins of common sense and everyday appearances come loose, "where simple/ answers fall like ashes/ through an iron grate." Photographers airbrush the truth, Cinderella wakes up in a California pleasure dome. Even individual poems take on phantasmagoric dimensions akin to Bosch's busy but fascinating paintings as the poet reels off catalogs of apocalyptic events: "A white goat/ is staring into windows again./ Bats clog the chimney like rags./ An angel in the attic/ mends a torn wing." The invention is considerable, and though the accretion of wild images and preposterous characters eventually wears thin, this volume showcases a talented surrealist whose future work will warrant close attention. Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
