"This generous poet is never less than attentive and responsive to the world that surrounds her." -- Carmela Ciuraru, New York Times Book Review Author: Robin Becker Publication Date: July 2006 Paperback.
In "Domain of Perfect Affection, "Robin Becker explores the conditions under which we experience and resist pleasure: in beauty salon, summer camp, beach, backyard, or museum; New York or New Mexico. “ The Mosaic injunction against / the graven image” inspires meditations on drawings by Dü rer, Evans, Klee, Marin, and del Sarto. To the consolations of art and human intimacy, Becker brings playfulness— “ Worry stole the kayaks and soured the milk” — suffused with self-knowledge: “ Worry wraps her long legs / around me, promises to be mine forever.” In “ The New Egypt, ” the narrator mines her family’ s legacy: “ From my father I learned the dignity / of exile and the fire of acquisition, / not to live in places lightly, but to plant / the self like an orange tree in the desert.” Becker’ s shapely stanzas— couplets, tercets, quatrains, pantoum, sonnet, syllabics— subvert her colloquial diction, creating a seamless merging of subject and form. Luminous, sensual, these poems offer sharp pleasures as they argue, elegize, mourn, praise, and sing.Tags: Lesbian Poetry.
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