| The central motif of the collection of poems, Missives, is the dovetailing of the occasion of the letter and the occasion of the poem. A letter, like poetry, can make an art of the elasticity of language, registering the shorthand of intimacy, or the legalese that sometimes allocates matters of the heart. When a letter is lifted from its occasion, it can present a puzzle. The puzzle is particularly inviting because it promises comprehensibility---if only one is able to interpret accurately the hints and allusions.;The poems of Section II, "Dream Letters" reprove the love letters of Section I with past decisions and potential accidents, with frightening and unknown paths. These dream letters are outside of time, can come and go like ghosts. In part, the poems of Section II illuminate the preoccupations that haunt the love letters of Section I, but they also create yet another kind of deferral.;Section III, "Valuations" offers a return to many of the recurring themes of the collection: birds, houses, memories, risk. It is a section for admitting the double edge of fixedness or moving forward, of commitment or flight. Houses, for example, represent financial and emotional security, but defy this promise by deteriorating, or producing an unhealthy stasis. Birds have inspired human modes of flight---making possible abandonment, but also love across long distances. Birds, like their seasons, also announce a chance for change, for a fresh start. Section IV, "Fall" depicts a new season, but also a surrender to all the possible ways of falling---in love, into accidents, into change.;The poems of Section I, "Letters & Love," approach love as a missent letter that promises comprehensibility but suffers from the pitfalls of interpretation. The half acknowledged preoccupations that trouble the interpretation of love in Section I, causing hesitation and deferral, are summed up in the title poem "Missive" as "things which remain stationary" (yet do not), and "things which are not what they seem." One could call these "things" risk, or chance---the unforeseeable events which propel us into frightening and unknown paths, not unlike the paths of dreams. |
