To the Left of Time

April 1, 2016

After a long career, the multi-award-winning Lux luxuriates in a chance to weigh the past ("What we were thinking/ was bombing the cows with dirtballs") against the present ("Always nervous around the cheerful,/ though drawn to them, always leery/ of the happy, I now find myself cheerful,/ and that makes me nervous"). After a first section loaded with unsentimentalized rural images--there's snow-covered manure and a string of small tragedies from a putative horse poisoner to a cousin's scarlet fever--we arrive at a selection of tongue-in-cheek or modestly touching odes ("I never meant to confuse/ those who thought--without malice/ and with some concern--otherwise: I was average"). A third section acutely observes the world ("Everything I hear is overviolined") as a sense of quiet acceptance threads its way throughout. VERDICT An accessible collection that will have broad appeal. [See Prepub Alert, 12/7/15.]

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