708
PARTISAN REVIEW
makes a point that is central to his work. H e says : " Man' s personality
possesses something untamed , mysteri o us, divine, unhisto ri cal, undo–
mesti cated , something that speaks qui etly in art, in religion , in the search
fo r truth , and it is exac tl y that deli cate something that is the hunted an–
imal, preyed upon by Po liti cal Systems and their countl ess conformiti es as
well as by the conformiti es produced spontaneously by a coll ec tivity."
Listen to this fin e poem :
New Poetry
Evening, the edge of th e city, a whole day
of
vo id ,
then all at once
the late feast: th e Sanskrit of dusk that speaks
in a glowing tongue ofjoy.
High overh ead fl ow cigarette firelets
no one is smoki ng.
Sheets of blazing secrets afl ame;
what th e serenely fadi ng sky tells
can't be remembered or even described.
So what if Pharaoh's armi es pursue you,
when eterni ty is woven
through the days of the week like moss
in th e chinks of a cabin
'
- " Late Feast"
CHARLES SIMIC
PERDIDO.
By
Chase Twichell.
Farrar, Straus
&
Giroux. $16.95.
THE SACRAMENTS OF DESIRE.
By
Linda Gregg.
Graywolf Press.
$14.95.
COMMONWEALTH OF WINGS.
By
Pamela Alexander.
W esleyan/ University Press of N ew England. $20.00.
C hase Twi chell has discovered in her new bo ok ,
Perdido,
the knac k
of ge tting right to the point, apparentl y refl ecting the beli ef that " it's easy
to li e with metaphor. " "Before I knew that I wo uld di e," th e first poem
in the boo k begins, and thi s plunges instantl y into a scene where the in–
tensity of love puts an end to "my willful igno rance o f death ." I found
myself wondering why so many o ther poets seem by contrast to stalk and
circl e their subj ects. The titl e of the poem, "Why All Go od Music Is
Sad ," illustrates th e same winning forthri ghtness, though it's admittedly a
