Money Shot

In her first book after Versed, winner of last year's Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle award, Armantrout presents 62 poems that showcase the language poetry techniques of quick tonal changes, subject leaps, and the incorporation of white space. The poems move rapidly, partially because Armantrout writes a very short line—often three words or fewer—with many paragraph breaks. Her descriptions have the quality of things glanced at sideways, and she is best at describing unusual details: "All night/ the sea coughs up// green strands." Many poems have two halves that speak about entirely different subjects; the reader must make connections between them. The poems require multiple readings, and sometimes the meanings are still not clear. For example, the title poem begins, "IndyMac:// Able to exploit pre-/existing.// Tain.// Per. In. Con./ Cyst." After research, one finds that IndyMac is a mortgage company involved in the banking and loan failure and "tain" is tin plate or foil. Still, the poet's unique way of observing the world combined with dynamic language creates beautiful sections.