Just finished the LoA volume today. I think she trailed off somewhat in her later years (though her last two books have their share of gems), with too many of the poems reading like descriptions straight out of life, though "Banyan" is a damn fine way to go out (and it makes a wonderful callback to "Secure", one of her best poems—see below).
Half Sun Half Sleep is, I think, her best book, though "Bleeding", the poem that prompted me to buy the volume, is the best single poem.
Beyond "Bleeding" and "Ocean, Whale-Shaped", which I've already highlighted here, I really love these two poems:
Secure
Let us deceive ourselves a little
while...Let us pretend that air
is earth...and falling lie resting
within each other's gaze...Let us
deny that flame consumes...that
fruit ripens...that the wave must
break...Let us forget the circle's
fixed beginning marks to the
instant its ordained end...Let us
lean upon the moment and expect
time to enfold us...space sustain
our weight...Let us be still...and
falling lie face to face and drink
each other's breath...Be still
Let us be still...We lie secure
within the careful mind of death
On its Way
Orange on its way to Ash.
Anger that a night will quench.
Passion in its honey swell
pumpkin-plump before the rot.
Bush of fire everywhere.
Fur of hillside running flame.
Rush of heat to rosehip cheek.
Ripeness on its way to frost.
Glare of blood before the black.
Foxquick pulse. The sun a den.
Heartkill. And the gold a gun.
It is death that taints the leaves.
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