680
PARTISAN REVIEW
In the last rinsing.
The simple act of washing dishes becomes here emblematic of "the
good life," which is "Conducted thoughtfully." After all, "passion" is "...the
holiest of powers, sustaining / Only if mastered."
Some critics have found Steele's poetry too moralizing and abstract, but
they overlook the fanciful, self-mocking poems, such as "Chanson
Philosophique," in which the argument between the nominalist and the realist
cohabiting in a lyric poet is resolved in paradox:
My life's a nominaVreal dispute,
Which leaves identity clear and blurred,
In which what happens has occurred
Often and never...
They also neglect to consider Steele's skill at handling imagery, in lines
like these that describe sparrows as they "spurt up to / And through the
lozenges of space" of a chain link fence. In "At
Will
Rogers Beach," the poet
"translates" a momentary perception into the form and substance of lan–
guage, reversing the motion of the roller-skaters:
One of them coasts upright, visoring a hand
To the sun's afterglow, while, smooth performers,
Two others click past a closed hot-dog stand,
She in a T-shirt, shorts, tights, and leg-warmers,
He in light gym trunks and a netted top;
And where the long wide pavement curves, they drop
Into a slight crouch and accelerate,
Cross-stepping, their arms swinging left and right,
Translating into speed their form and weight
And dwindling, as they sweep off, into night.
For Steele, form and articulation are ultimately the only response to the
chaos of half-consciousness. In "Toward Calgary," the "Needless invention,
needless thrift" of the oxymoronic "prudent heart" (that restrained seat of the
passions) are themselves chastened by the huge sky, "an inclusive drift / Of
radiance." For Steele, then, the value of measured verse itself is determined
by what cannot be measured.
Vikram Seth's verse novel,
The Golden Gate,
touches upon the same
issues of measure and passion as SI:tapiro's narrative poems and Steele's lyric
meditations, but is at once a comedy of manners, or of Bay Area yuppie
