The Wild Iris

The Wild Iris

From Library JournalGluck's sixth collection presents a series of spare, somber lyrics on the predicament of mortality. Through the ostensible medium of prayer--many of the poems are titled either "Matins" or "Vespers"--she gives tongue to both voiceless creations (the short-lived snowdrops who say they are "afraid, yes, but among you again/ crying yes risk joy/ in the raw wind of the new world") and to Creator ("you are worth/ one life, no more than that"), as well as to her own ambivalence toward a higher power ("In what contempt do you hold us/ to believe only loss can impress/ your power on us"). Though the poems glimmer more than gleam, repeated readings unveil subtle reversals and shadings, evoking the ghostly consciousness that has always invested Gluck's best work.- Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, N.Y.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.Poems examine the relationship between humans and nature and consider mortality, consciousness, identity, and love.From Publishers WeeklyThe award-winning author of The Triumph of Achilles looks here at relations between heaven and earth. More than half of the poems address an "unreachable father," or are spoken in a voice meant to be his: "Your souls should have been immense by now, / not what they are, / small talking things . . . This ambitious and original work consists of a series of "matins," "vespers," poems about flowers, and others about the seasons or times of day, carrying forward a dialogue between the human and divine. This is poetry of great beauty, where lamentation, doubt and praise show us a god who can blast or console, but who too often leaves us alone; Gluck, then, wishes to understand a world where peace "rushes through me, / . . . like bright light through the bare tree." Only rarely (in "The Doorway," for example) does the writing fail. But when dialogue melds with lyricism, the result is splendid. In "Violets" the speaker tells her "dear / suffering master": "you / are no more lost / than we are, under / the hawthorn tree, the hawthorn holding / balanced trays of pearls." This important book has a powerful, muted strangeness.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.ReviewAprilClear MorningCloverDaisiesThe DoorwayEarly DarknessEnd Of SummerEnd Of WinterField FlowersThe GardenThe Gold LilyHarvestThe Hawthorn TreeHeaven And EarthIpomoeaThe Jacob's LadderLamiumLove In MoonlightLullabyMatinsMatinsMatinsMatinsMatinsMatins: 1Matins: 2MidsummerPresque IsleThe Red PoppyRetreating LightRetreating WindScillaSeptember TwilightThe Silver LilySnowdropsSongSpring SnowSunsetTrilliumVespers (1)Vespers (2)Vespers (3)Vespers (4)Vespers (5)Vespers (6)Vespers (7)Vespers (8)Vespers (9)Vespers: ParousiaVioletsThe White LiliesThe White RoseThe Wild IrisWitchgrass-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder