Political poetry, even from great artists, is often narrow-focused if not shrill. One of the chief graces of Stephen Hartnett's dazzlingly original book, Incarceration Nation , is the amazing range of subject, mood, thought, and voice within its exploration of America's imprisoning culture. He revives Whitman's vision of America against the countervailing evidence, often by borrowing from prison poets, some grossly over-punished, some never guilty. The suppressed horrors of prison life are intercalated with gruff male humor, compassionate moments with guards, and perspectives from Schelling and Kant. Hartnett does homage to Forché's poetry of witness and Sanders's investigative poetics, but more than either, his is a poetry of engagement, of vision becoming practice. This is a major achievement, with promise of more to come.