Armor and Flesh

Book excerpt: In these poems there is the duality of wanting and needing, softness and hardness. The vulnerability of flesh and the necessary protection of armor are in constant conflict. There is a fusion of male and female, of self and other—the self outside itself, looking in a mirror, sometimes in mystery or knowing terror at what it sees. Here are the "stark, dark places where self and selves unfurl, confront, and recombine." These cleanly wrought poems confirm that nothing is simple and that flesh could not long survive without the intricate armor of luck, imagination, and grace. This first collection was the 2004 winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award.