The New Tourism

Poetry. In Harry Mathews's first collection of poetry in nearly 20 years, a legend of the American avant-garde unveils compelling anomalies including the prose sestina, didactic gastronomy, and a haiku sequence--a diary of discrete (if not so discreet) late-night improvisations on the familiar Japanese three-line form. The central section collects poems of terse lyricism devoted to the unpredictable deviations between intention and desire--the landscape of the new tourism: "Where is it I came from / And where is it I'm stranded? / Part of the maps is black / And the rest's in borrowed language."