French for Soldiers

June 15, 1987
When we are awake at night, all things seem possible, bad and good, monsters and dreams. Like many of us, Nyhart seems to have spent nights puzzling mysteries, but the difference is that she arrives at some insights that make life bearable: "and what's a word for, if not to hang in shining pieces/ in a midnight sky?" Unfortunately, discoveries made in darkness don't always survive in the light of day. Like a person thought beautiful the night before, some of these poems cannot withstand the glare of noon, which is too revealing for a line like "flutterers cluttering the beige ionosphere." When right, as in "The Glimpse" and "The Highwayman," Nyhart can make the night shine. Though this isn't always the case, the work is worth reading for the poems that glow. W. R. Wilkins, Pasco P.L., Wash.

Copyright 1987 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.