Dragging the Lake

"Photographers once risked their hands and eyes, igniting vials of magnesium powder, so powerful is the love of the image," says the title poem of this collection, whose images range from the northern lights to St. Bridget turning bathwater into beer. "Did you know some people claim to have heard the aurora? one poem asks. The muses of music and image wrestle in these poems, but from the songs of Elvis Costello to the operas of Leos Jan獺cek, music seems to prevail, even against "the glorious, trillion-spined black lava slicing through your flip-flops," and "night jasmine kicking the door ajar." "Photographers once risked their hands and eyes, igniting vials of magnesium powder, so powerful is the love of the image," says the title poem of this collection, whose images range from the northern lights to St. Bridget turning bathwater into beer. "Did you know some people claim to have heard the aurora? one poem asks. The muses of music and image wrestle in these poems, but from the songs of Elvis Costello to the operas of Leos Jan獺cek, music seems to prevail, even against "the glorious, trillion-spined black lava slicing through your flip-flops," and "night jasmine kicking the door ajar."