Floating on Solitude: Three Volumes of Poetry

Forging through this voluminous collection is akin to visiting at length with a charismatic, if highly disturbed, relative. Generally, the poems (from Cumberland Station, 1976; Goshawk, Antelope, 1979; and Dream Flights, 1981) start out presenting facades of well-mannered normalcy, e.g., brief narratives or odes to nature and the sea, but then something shifts and goes terribly right. A sentence turns odd and powerful (""There are many ways to die and one is in the nerve""); a quiet, streak of insanity emerges; a young girl leaves her scent upon a young boy's body. Sometimes a poem pops up that is dangerous from start to finish, such as ""The Suicide Eaters"" or ""Drunks,"" about a reading at a V.A. hospital for recovering addicts and alcoholics. Smith is highly conscious of word choice. He tinkers with grammar and rhythm just enough to be utterly engaging, leaving the reader exhausted after the visit, but wiser for the effort. (Dec.)