The centerpiece of this wonderful book is the long poem "Evil Nature," an account of loss so powerful it's like sinking into "beautiful quicksand." Something had happened to make the world seem fraudulent and "swimming at sea/birds bite irresponsibly at our hands." The wound will not be healed, and the woman for whom a passing train is "a smudge in the window" hears the "hiss of an oven with a dead bird in it." There are few poets who can render emotion with such ferocity and intelligence. Despite all that is said about the materiality of language and limits of subjectivity, life will have its way with us.