Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it--and sadly, the memory of Desert Storm seems to fade from our collective psychic landscape. This anthology attempts to capture and reflect on the lessons the Gulf War--much as did Belinda Subraman's The Gulf War: Many Perspectives collection, and Leslie Scalapino's O 3 anthology [see reviews in TRR #1 & #3]. The names here include many of American poetry's "big guns"--Robert Bly, Amy Clampitt, Jayne Cortez, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, William Stafford... But the tone tends toward the strident, occasionally as shrill as an air-raid siren--impassioned but unlistenable, and ultimately less human than work in the aforementioned, lesser-known volumes. Political poetry, with the balance leaning heavy towards the politics.--luigi
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #4,
Contact the editor, luigi-bob drake, at Burning Press
Copyright Burning Press 1994, 1995.