Season of Dead Water

In this impassioned response to the 1989 Exxon oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound, Frost has compiled 44 poems and essays (many previously published) that seek ``some small but enduring truth'' as they explore the magnitude of the disaster; its impact on the environment and the lives of local residents; the economic and political implications; and, finally, the collective guilt we share ``as members of a human community that has profoundly injured its surroundings.'' Frost, a writer who has lived in Alaska, has enlisted a wide range of contributors, including writers such as Wendell Berry and Nancy Willard; local leaders and residents (from a village chief to an eighth-grade Fairbanks student); and members of the clean-up and rescue efforts. Unfortunately, many of the poems rely on hyperbole and didacticism (Carolyn Kizer's Suppressing the Evidence is a case in point). Far more pk inspiring are the prose pieces, several of which use matter-of-fact images to chilling effect: ``There are oiled loons making their calls, oiled otters and babies . . . dead deer floating in the water.'' (July)