Ungentrified

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When the muses are with you, especially the North Valley Muse, real poems appear without you getting in the way at all. That's one of the many joys of reading Sharon Niederman's "Ungentrified: Poems of the North Valley and Beyond." They are fascinatingly specific and precise but without requiring any reference other than the reader's own welcoming imagination. In appreciation of real places and real people, they read for me, as she says, like "learning to love petunias .... as commonplace as a friendly smile on a dark, lonely road." I turn to "Ungentrified" lately when I need to be reminded that every day is a once in a lifetime gift, worthy of singular attention, as when the Muse of the North Valley gave Niederman the image of a favorite dog, "a seeing eye heart...ready to protect/All love, big and fearless." That's what the poets I want to read know how to do, turn perception into restrained and eccentric instruments of praise.

• V.B. Price