Removing the Kimono

Every poem in Anne M. Carson's collection is appealing on account of the distinctive cast of mind revealed in a precise language that registers the author's alertness to all senses. Three groups of poems establish a pattern of mortality and rebirth, of natural forces and human emotions. The central heart of the book is an extended mediation on the loss of Anne's husband - poems both deeply personal and universal. They are held by two other sections which explore her relationship with and place within the natural world, particularly drawing on the theme of regeneration after disaster.