Retreats & Recognitions: Poems

All one has to do is read Note From the Imaginary Daughter, the first poem in Grace Bauer’s Retreats and Recognitions, and you’ll be caught in the grip of psychological drama and an evocative imagination that will make you want to read further. Bauer’s poems probe the dark landscapes between impression and apprehension, the past and its repetition though imaginative transformation, impulse and restraint. Her delivery is tough and terse; her imagery is fresh and often startling. There is experience and authority in her voice. She can be immensely witty, as in Plot Lines, where she improvises on the word, tale, or virtuoso as in her intricate sestina, A Little Like Dorothy. Succinct, like Awakened By the Fall, and evocative, like Lunacy. Her poems are poignant, intelligent, and believable. Poetry lovers, read this book! –Robert Pack