Wobble

In her latest, Pulitzer Prize-winning Armantrout (Versed) presents language poems built on a metaphysics of loss, with subtle allusions to work by William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot, and even Robert Frost. In "The Craft Talk," for instance, readers will recognize Williams's influence as Armantrout explains writing as climbing "inside the machine/ that was language…steering only occasionally." Another poem compares writing poetry to piloting "a stream as it freezes into shape" and ends with comments about a verb's ability to "act out metaphorically." Frequently, there are references to the poet's mother. An especially poignant poem notes that she's "in managed care" unable to remember the past and therefore is "not her mother." Another describes a particularly sad visit: "After what passes for thought,/ she leans forward, extracts/ a honey-flavored cough drop/ from its yellow/ packaging."