Earth's Appetite: Poems 1. Painos

These poems reflect an astute awareness of associations across time. A beetle crossing a tennis court brings to mind an infant crawling across the floor--one who's now asking for the keys to the family car. A jar of golden honey draws readers into the murmur of bees and the scent of basswood flowers. In Earth's Appetite, Hasse offers a lyrical paean to re-roofing a house and a humorous description of how a dog and its unemployed owner spend a day. Her extended ode to feet, ''twin girls dressed alike,'' possesses a Neruda-like simplicity and charm. The book shows Hasse's longstanding mastery of striking imagery. ''Rung by rung down the ladder of my backbone,'' she writes, and ''earth like a love tilts toward and away.'' The book as a whole reminds us of the quirky ways that lives unfold, strengthening or breaking connections, offering unexpected turns and recurrent, familiar themes.