City of Water

Poetry. Robert Thompson's poems have many admirable qualities, chief among them: a light touch. A light touch is only admirable when it goes against the grain, when it is something more than willful fun 'n' games, or mere whimsy, when it undermines solemnity without sacrificing attention. The pleasures of Robert Thompson's delightful CITY OF WATER are the pleasures of the unexpected, whether disclosed in a romantic meditation on a beautiful life, in a Brooklyn trashscape, or in his son's nursery. Consisting of two long, capacious ruminations, The Light of Things and Room with Red Andes, punctuated by short poems of a striking clarity the book chronicles an intensely alert mind whose perceptions range from the hilarious opening poem to the quietly devastating title poem with which it concludes--John Koethe.