Carolyn Tipton?s third book, The Poet of Poet Laval,
begins by celebrating openings, moments that give an abundant sense of
possibility. The poems sometimes return here, but also move through
other themes?by way not of sections, but of transitional poems?to death
and the Spanish Civil War, to art and different perspectives on
creating. The poems then shift their attention to love?its dazzlement,
its despair. The book ends with a series of poems about our very
reciprocal relationship with the natural world, noting especially the
ways in which it speaks to us?the green flash! Sometimes, the poems
register dissolution and loss. Yet they also attend to compensations,
saving graces, and window-moments that can change our perception, or
simply delight us with the surprise of a small revelation.