O TASTE AND SEE: FOOD POEMS (A Collection of Modern & Contemporary Poems). David Lee Garrison/Terry Hermsen, Editors. Bottom Dog Press. This anthology builds a wonderful collection of poetry about food by some of the finest American poets of the last century. Vivid and evocative, these poems recall the wonderful passages Kerouac wrote about the diners on the rolling roads of America circa 1950. These verses capture the idea and echo of sustenance -- feeding the spirit through the food of words. Highly recommended for both the student of poetry/literature and the casual reader. Poets featured include Denise Levertov, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost, Gertrude Stein, Frank O'Hara, Pablo Neruda, Allen Ginsberg, William Carlos Williams, Wendell Berry and James Wright.

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WHERE RIVER MEETS OCEAN. Devorah Major. City Lights Publishers. Devorah Major is the new Poet Laureate of San Francisco, and this collection features many new pieces, including her inaugural address -- a soft blooming and deeply introspective piece that examines the role poetry can play in the evolution of a culture. Major’s themes are sprawling and varied (politics, spiritual discovery, the mystery of love), but they always seem to return us to the same place: knife in hand cutting away the layered shadows, knife in hand revealing the depth of the human spirit - singing in honor of the soul:

“but I am a mother true
and my poems
like my children of flesh
crowd my dreams my room
my laughter
my fear”

(From “i grow my poems”)

And from another selection:

“have i told you
 that i love words
 that i embrace them as my constant lover
 am always available early dawns
 rain-filled evenings
 midnight moonrises”

 (From “amends”)

Where River Meets Ocean is a typical City Light’s release -- a hard-hitting mind feast that seeks to cradle and comfort as it inspires the free movement of thought. Appropriate for veteran fans of Major’s work and for readers interested in discovering why she came to be selected as the poetic voice of the ‘city by the bay’. Also recommended as a college-level text for courses on modern poetry.

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DARK ARCANA/ AFTERIMAGE OR GLOW. Anne Waldman. Heaven Bone Press. Anne Waldman, who along with Diane di Prima, comprises the “female” voice of the Beat Generation, has presented us with a magnificent collection of poetry that should once and for all solidify her standing as one of the most important writers in the country. In addition to writing, Waldman is internationally known as a cultural activist, performer and professor (at the Naropa School of Poetics in Colorado), but her true calling is as a poet. And DARK ARCANA brings us Waldman at her lyrical best: a true commentator on the society and its aimless eyes, she blends Allen Ginsberg’s keen awareness with Emily Dickinson’s soulful poignancy to create this unique verse, these poems like a transparent sea of echoes now working line-by-line to build permanent harmony between the spirit and its many passing realms.

Looking back at her formidable body of work, “DARK ARCANA/ AFTERIMAGE OR GLOW” is probably the best single poem Anne Waldman has ever written - a deep examination of the impact of the Vietnam War on the world some 4 decades after its bombs shook the face of the sky into embers. Aside from its thoughtful dissection of the affects of the war on culture, the piece’s relevance extends all the way to Iraq in the autumn of 2003: As American soldiers attempt to bring the essence of democracy to a people who resent the smell of our very presence. Also note the wonderful cover photography by rock and roll diva Patti Smith. Although she’s often over-looked in university literature classes, DARK ARCANA states in no uncertain terms that Anne Waldman is a poet who deserves the attention of readers in America and beyond.

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