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| In this remarkable
book, her fourth collection of poems, Marianne Boruch continues
to explore the world around her with curiosity, wry humor,
searching skepticism, and thoughtful tenderness. Her poems
range widely, letting themselves be triggered, often, by
quite ordinary events and people, in order to launch themselves
into unpredictable questions and considerations.
Wiry, witty, shot through with a special wisdom, these
are poems to cherish and reread.
Marianne Boruch is also the author of Moss Burning and Poems:
New & Selected.
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| THE
BOOK OF HAND SHADOWS
An eagle and a squirrel. A bull and a sage.
All take two hands, even the sheep
whose mouth is a lever for nothing, neither
grass nor complaint. The black swan's
mostly one long arm, bent
at the elbow but there's always feathers
to fool with. Front leaf: a boy
with a candle, leaning curious while
an old man makes
a Shakespeare. The small pointed beard
is a giveaway.
I always wanted to, especially
because of the candle part. How the eye is finally
a finger bent to make an emptiness. Or that
a thing thrown up there
is worlds bigger than how it starts. So I liked
the ceiling better than the wall, looking up
where stars roamed and moon sometimes
hovered, were the roof lost,
were we lucky
and forgot ourselves.
--Marianne Boruch
Copyright c 1997 by Oberlin College. May not be
reproduced without permission.
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