Cake (Selected Poems by Doreen Fitzgerald)

This collection contains 67 poems on life in Alaska and the Midwest, arranged in roughly chronological order over the span of the poet's life. Many of the poems are strongly sensory, generating indelible, fresh visual images as diverse as a bumblebee on a dying flower and the sweep of auroras across the sky, or aural images of a madman's song and a jazzman's sax. The precision and elegance of Fitzgerald's words can make readers pause to appreciate their own perceptions in light of hers. Or to examine their feelings: One of her strong themes is the linking of families across generations; from an eloquent, spare elegy for a dead granddaughter to an appreciation of the storytelling of a grandfather, she shows the ties that bind--and some of the knots and ravels that affect those relationships. Fitzgerald writes disciplined poems, tight in rhythm and sound, often in formal modes. She understands in her bones the musical basis of poetry. Yet there is nothing stuffy in this collection, and even her most tender love lyric may end on a wry twist. For all their sophistication, these are accessible, delightful poems, enjoyable from first to last.