From Publishers Weekly
When a visionary poet aspires to express inherently indescribable mystical experiences, as does Mandel in this intricate collection, readers can only hope to follow him to ``the upper world.'' In complex poems of religious incantation, Mandel introduces us to cosmic riddling, suggesting that ``The cosmos like commerce is paratactic.'' His poems are grave, circuitous journeys toward truth, knowledge, eternity--journeys reaffirming that truth is not simple, that ``truth too is multiple / a contradictory matter of possibilities.'' He creates a style as elaborate as his subject, and poems such as ``Ramah'' interweave narratives, divine injunctions, prayers, queries and quotations in a stylistically vital manner. Mandel's philosophical tenor rings in a rarefied atmosphere; his poetic epigrams resound convincingly; and his imagery strikes one as undeniably lovely. Nonetheless, this collection as a whole is maddeningly evasive. Readers must believe him when he warns: ``A trampoline of constructions / locks into the speech I tread on, / describing what you read inside / and outside.''
Copyright 1994 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
