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Underground: New and Selected Poems

by Jim Moore
Graywolf. 2014. 296p. ISBN 9781555976873. pap. $20. POETRY
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Including the best work from six collections (e.g., Invisible Strings, Lightning at Dinner) along with new poems, this volume makes it clear that while Moore may have experimented with length throughout his career (each of his books contains sprinklings of brief poems that read like reworked Kobayashi Issa), he has not drastically altered his raison d'etre. Like C.K. Williams (who, not surprisingly, provided a blurb), Moore's obsession is a slippery reaching for, though never grasping, a kind of reverence. Moore has tried for decades to describe observations "at a slant," as Emily Dickinson wrote, a compulsion this collection allows us to see running through his oeuvre, from 1975 ("I read aloud, pausing for rain") to 2005 ("Do you think it's easy,/ not biting/ the one you love?") and beyond.
VERDICT Moore's most recent poetry differs from his older pieces only in that it contains a greater frequency of sharp bits, as in "Pompeii" from Lightning at Dinner: "The son gives his mother the lily,/ then runs away, as if/ afraid he will get caught/ loving someone that much." A useful overview.
Reviewed by Stephen Morrow, Hilliard, OH , Nov 01, 2014
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