An Infusion of Violets

Using the same musical sense of language she applies to her translations, Nancy Naomi Carlson masterfully interprets herself in An Infusion of Violets. The sometimes erotic, sometimes melancholy landscapes she creates as the self-appointed sitar’s ragged throat, pitched / between here and when, / caught in quartertones, take our breath away. Carlson describes an interior world where tears can produce so much salt a body floats away, where music tuned to loss descends with rain, and where hope is placed in the kill-cure. Here we encounter Carlson’s ex-husbands and luminaries such as Rachmaninoff and Monet, among others. Filled with striking images and sensuous language, An Infusion of Violets is an evocative mix of formal and free-verse poems.