Dependencies: Poems

Rating:
Summary: Handicapped
Review: Had I read this collection before her others, I would have fallen in love with this crafter of images and emotions in a different way. That said, I expected this to be a new collection, and was slightly disappointed to discover it to be a reprint. The poetry is vivid, but not as smooth as her other works. It is like a collection of sharp steel: bright with edges and tips. Her other books like _Alive Together: New and Selected Poems_, and _Waving From Shore_ are like intricate Spanish or Japanese swords; beautiful and intellectually/emotionally dangerous.

Rating:
Summary: Handicapped
Review: Had I read this collection before her others, I would have fallen in love with this crafter of images and emotions in a different way. That said, I expected this to be a new collection, and was slightly disappointed to discover it to be a reprint. The poetry is vivid, but not as smooth as her other works. It is like a collection of sharp steel: bright with edges and tips. Her other books like _Alive Together: New and Selected Poems_, and _Waving From Shore_ are like intricate Spanish or Japanese swords; beautiful and intellectually/emotionally dangerous.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely Words
Review: I was enchanted by Mueller immediately after reading the first poem in this book. "The Blind Leading the Blind." I read the words, "something with wings went crazy against my chest once," and felt that exact motion in a familiar way. Her serious tone gives extraordinary weight to words. Her descriptions of love, admiration and nature are careful and surprising. While not every poem moved me, a good number of them did and it was worth it to read this poetry for phrases such as "O there is hope that lambs of snow will cover the wounded ground with the simple charity of whiteness one of these autumn nights, muffling our mouths out of questions after the sense of things." (from In Memory of Anton Webern, dead September15, 1945.) Dependencies is for those who appreciate the weight of lovely words.