We Slept the Animal

Poetry. WE SLEPT THE ANIMAL is one of the most intensely populated books since Whitman--and yet, 'We are made / in the image of loss, ' Kalamaras reminds us in 'Letter to Eric from Cripple Creek.' Like the Richard Hugo book which is precursor, we find poems and letters here, but addressed to a wider range, a vaster group of Americans, living and dead and to come. I know of no other book with this generosity, with this ambition so divested of ego. 'I know what it's been to step west, ' Kalamaras admits, as The Rocky Mountain West, indeed the country as a whole, become populations engaged with complexity and love. There is mourning here, but even more celebration.--Bin Ram