destructive element

Destructive Element: New & Selected Poems

Just when you think you are in the midst of a traditional, formal poem, Turner Cassity turns satin into sting. A native of Jackson, Mississippi--like writers Eudora Welty and Richard Wright--Cassity ranges the world in subject matter, from "Berlin to Baghdad" to "Texarkana," always exposing elements that are risky to divulge and often hilarious to contemplate. In "Why Fortune Is the Empress of the World," humanity is depicted "in overcrowded lifeboats" drawing lots. In "Domestic Symphony" Cassity resolves, "Say Heaven is this treehouse we have sinned in. / Our wine is ready.