cover image Like a Beggar

Like a Beggar

Ellen Bass . Copper Canyon (Consortium, dist.), $16 trade paper (76p) ISBN 978-1-55659-464-9

"Bad things are going to happen," begins Bass (The Human Line), though she insists on giving praise despite that. In the post-Confessional tradition of Sharon Olds%E2%80%94with a backdrop of Rilke and Neruda%E2%80%94and populated with images both traditional (flowers, insects, fruit) and novel (Barbies and TV), Bass tries hard to convey everyday wonder on contemporary experiences of sex, work, aging, and war: "What if you felt the invisible/ tug between you and everything?" These poems%E2%80%94which contain statements as frankly narrative as "I'd just left my husband and come out as a lesbian"%E2%80%94chiefly function as memoir, holding Bass's personal experience to such importance that it raises the question of where in poetry is the line between introspection and naval-gazing? While the attempts are honest, the results are mixed, as when the social experiences of the speaker are lauded, while others are employed merely as metaphor for her: "When I get back in bed I find/ the woman who's been sleeping there/ each night for thirty years. Only she's not/ the same, her body more naked/ in its aging, its disorder. Though I still/ come to her like a beggar." Still, those who turn to poetry to become confidants for another's stories and secrets will not be disappointed. (Apr.)