New Selected Poems 1970-1985

This fine volume contains poems from Rothenberg's last four books, plus a few new poems. As Rothenberg contends, it helps the reader understand his recent work as "the thread of a single long poem or sequence." We see the progression from the imaginary ancestor who becomes "Cokboy" in Poland/1931 ( LJ 9/15/74) to the Baal Shem of A Seneca Journal ( LJ 3/1/78), who leaves "the light of Torah/ & becomes/ any old animal inside/ the sacred wood." In later poems Rothenberg extends his ancestral search until it locates him within a literary tradition. It is his genius that the reverence one expects from ancestor worship is here replaced by vivid images of procreation. This intelligent selection contains Rothenberg's longest, most memorable works. Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor "Soho Weekly News," New York