cover image Pairs: New Poems

Pairs: New Poems

Philip Booth, Phillip Booth. Penguin Books, $12.95 (96pp) ISBN 978-0-14-058724-1

In his ninth collection, Booth (Selves) stays true to the local in his rhythms and his tone of voice. The locality is his version of Maine, and the writer evokes it with a circumspect songfulness in poems like ``Fog-Talk,'' ``Backcountry'' and ``November Sun'' as a place that commands a sober loyalty devoid of rank emotionality. The poetry is pure, spare, attracted by the essential to emulate it-often mutedly. For the most part, Booth shakes off vocalism (and mannerism) in an atmosphere of meditative quiet that much noisier poets should notice, and might envy, although his extremely short poems are disappointing: Puritan minimalism can pall as a standard. But in poetry about illness, death and aging (``Outlook,'' ``Two Letters,'' ``After the First Death'') Booth lets form and feeling-chary, but intense-meet; one can't imagine them parting. (Oct.)