At the Foundling Hospital

In his latest offering, Pinsky, a three-term U.S. Poet Laureate, visits a foundling hospital to discover the past. Pinsky, who started out as a jazz musician, excels at figures of sound—rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, and assonance as in "Artful Uriah. Orchid. Author. Doomed bees brewing/ Honey." As he plays on the word, foundling, each poem becomes a memory which is a foundling and a finding. The poems are also identifying tokens as when in history a mother pinned a token to her child, so they could be reunited. Gods, especially the God of Judaism, are present as are biblical, literary, and historical figures. There are also ancestors, relatives, rabbis, and his own youth. Among his memories are a boyhood conversation with his father who tells him, "you are my life after death." He remembers a school chum who died in Vietnam, as well as lyrics of popular songs.