World`d Too Much: The Poetry of Russell Atkins, Atkins Russell

This sheaf of anti-Wordsworthian scherzi by Russell Atkins is a pharmaceutical-grade delight--the laughter that hags. From the manifesto which opens this volume to the noiry/Sublime poetry dramas which close it out, Atkinss feats and sleights prompt (in me) a Bacchantic response. Its like when, driving eastbound thru Cleveland on the I-90, at the height of summer, you reach that point where you have to either make a sharp right turn at full speed or drive directly into the lake. For a brainsplitting second, suspended in Atkinss poetry, I feel myself slip the binary, buck airborne & soar up over Eries dazzling, fatal face. This is the sheerest of stuff, and the best.--Joyelle McSweeney