Strange Life

Some books face outward into the world and delight (or despair) in what they find there. Others, like this latest from Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize winner Lerman, withdraw into the persona of the writer for solace. William Carlos Williams famously said that there are "no ideas but in things," that is, abstract concepts can enter into poetry only by way of objects that represent them. But in Lerman's work, objects are not gateways to ideas but pure phenomena whose meanings are uncertain, even deceptive. Lerman's narrator often describes herself as alone in the landscapes of her creation, and while many of the poems in this collection address themselves to particular people, there is an element of wistfulness that carries with it the understanding that these people, the audience of the poems, are elsewhere. In a world populated by a single voice, a landscape full of mute objects can be the worst kind of mirage; rather than extending beyond themselves, the poems risk becoming an existential echo chamber.