Subject Matter : Poems
Each poem in Baron Wormser's sixth collection, Subject Matter, is fourteen lines. In the tradition of works such as Robert Lowell's Notebook, Wormser uses this form to concisely pursue a wide range of topics. The sixty-one poems range in tone from fierce to wry, from tender to brisk, from quizzical to evocative, just as the topics range from tattoos to Buddhism, from truck driving to Israel, from global warming to orgasms. What all the poems share is a willingness to pursue uneasy truths, a willingness to encounter how deeply the public realm touches the private realm. Book jacket.