Crash's Law: Poems

By: Karen Volkman

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Synopsis: Selected by Heather McHugh as 1995 winner in the National Poetry Series, Volkman's debut collection retells myths and fairy tales in a modern, abstract voice to reveal essential, nearly private messages. In "Persephone at Home," for example, the abducted goddess is ironic and cold in accepting her fate: "I'll give no prince to this kingdom./ That thing is dead." The collection's pared-down yet inventive voice often surprises with exact rightness, as in "Reflections": "What good is a sky, I might have asked, if it will not give us new/ blue distance, if it will/ only throw our loss back at us, shabby lens." Like the girl in "Science and Industry" who chooses to play with Legos rather than "sweet-limbed cherry-cheeked/ dolls," Volkman chooses an angular, rigorously constructed style that informs her work with an exciting confidence, even though at times substance or a more radical exploration of meaning is sacrificed to style. Despite this occasional hollow effect, Volkman forcefully fuses ancient story and contemporary scene to frame an ironic and deflected commentary on modern emotional life.