A toast in the house of friends : poems /

Don't expect sense from these poems, in which grief, politics, literary theory, and sexuality interweave. But do expect language surprise and beautiful metaphors. Here are some examples of both: "a colonnade of violets," "thunderous applauding infants," and "loaned surnames to stars." Much of the book commemorates the author's son, Oluchi McDonald, who died in a Los Angeles emergency room after waiting hours without treatment. The poems record this huge loss: "I his body is disintegrating, I his body is ossification." Working in the oral tradition of performance poetry, Oliver (The She Said Dialogues) has composed many chants where repetition and slight word variation build to crescendos: "I have wrapped you in rose petals and clean sheets beautiful boys girls beautiful/ beautiful girls boys beautiful/ beautiful boys girls beautiful." Though one long poem illustrated with her dead son's graffiti is too pedestrian and prosy, even academic, the strongest poems celebrate the loss of her loved ones: "language is a skin/ memory is a skin/ forgetting is a sin." When Oliver presents her experiences in metaphor-rich language, the reader feels what she feels: incredible loss, infinite pain. Recommended for larger collections.-Doris Lynch, Monroe Cty. P.L., Bloomington, IN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.