Appetites

Delightfully playful, Alexander Dickow's newest collection of poetry-- Appetites--is a feast for all. Readers ravenous for Dickow's former strengths of attention to the sounds, puns and turns of language (the "crabbed utterings [that] / Topple our blurred lips out") will find themselves satiated. But the cherry on the top is a witty spice spooned heftily into the mix: Dickow's humorous tug of war between the archaic, arcane and the ultramodern (recalling explorations by Lisa Jarnot). This is "tall verbiage," as he writes in "Beverage," which readers are certain to drink in with relish. A? table!

--Jennifer K. Dick