The Finnish Orchestra
by Kathryn Rantala

Description

In her most topically comprehensive collection of poetry, Rantala considers her heritage as she knows it — spare of fact, filled with impression and effect.  At varying times lyrical, modernist, post-modern and runic, the pieces create an eclectic symphony of the individual, as unique as the orchestra in which her immigrant grandfather played in early 20th Century Astoria, Oregon.

Excerpt:

 

Arch of dark,

the sun, low in love,

as used as smooth as sauna,

dim for weary, for the dead,

their eyes of coal;

travelers reddened by steamed joy.

Night lets itself in.

A foot wrong here is the arctic.