TRACE OF ONE

A graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop and winner of the Discovery/The Nation prize, Goodman teaches at CUNY's Baruch College, and here registers impressions on "Silicon retina, artificial cochlea, tongue:/ ...learning how best to transcribe spirit/ by tracking chemical release." In nearly 40 page-or-so lyrics divided into two numbered sections, Goodman's speaker finds the title trace beneath a "Beech Tree in March," in "Benares" and "In an Excessive Corridor," where "The story is always one of axing/ your way out only to end/ more deeply interiored—."