Out in the Open: Poems

In her fourth collection, award-winning poet Gibson ( The Daybooks of Tina Modotti ) seeks ``small clarities, hard won'' in nature, whose ``fresh syllables'' serve as models for her own poetic language. Wishing to possess a ``beginner's mind'' able to perceive things afresh, and writing as one who feels ``properly alone'' in forest or meadow, Gibson lyrically explores a peaceable kingdom that reveals to her the ``singular solace / of being equivalent and simple.'' Among her subjects are the humble lemon (admirably ``sleek and visible'') and garlic, whose potency seems miraculous. Peppers render the poet ``plural, / polymorphous, perverse,'' extending her own being by their example. For Gibson, poetry, like nature, is purifying. Yet as a public record of private experience, her work communicates a longing for natural simplicity more convincingly than its fulfillment. (Feb.)