Green Age

In her rich seventh collection, poet and critic Ostriker ( The Imaginary Lover ; Vision and Verse in William Blake ) examines the complexities of human relationships with an intimate tone and a rhythmic sense of immediacy perhaps most evident in work discussing mothers and children. Observing a daughter's lonesome isolation, the speaker in ``A Birthday Suite'' notes that ``you knew you were / The final piece of fruit / Left in a festive bowl. . . . / A solitary apple, unripe, stunted / But keeping busy catalyzing the bitterness / Under its peel . . . .'' Ostriker's range, however, is broad and rewarding: she raises issues--sexual, religious--relevant both to contemporary and ancient women. Striking throughout is the poet's tendency to sympathize and nurture, affirming life despite its necessary pains: ``Friend, I could say / I've been alive a half a dozen moments / but that's not true / I've been alive my entire time / on this earth / I've been alive.'' (Nov.)