Poet Nikky Finney

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the same time they are often deeply personal. Some poems in the collection are political, sometimes enraged, yet a celebratory poem can appear on the very next page. At times the language of the poems is very direct and plainspoken, but the very next line can be textured by sound and might even feel a bit "difficult" because of that texture.

In addition, Finney's poems range all across the continent, yet they often seem deeply rooted in her coastal South Carolina childhood. The award-winning book begins with a prose piece that remembers a childhood moment: "The girl is sent for dinner fish. Inside the market she fills her aluminum bowl with ice-blue mackerel and mullet, according to her mother's instruction. The fishmonger standing there, blood on his apron, whale knife in hand, asks, Head off and split? Translation: Do away with the watery gray eyes, the impolite razor-sharp fins, the succulent heart, tender roe, delicate sweet bones? Polite, dutiful, training to be mother, bride, kitchen frau. Her answer, Yes." It is certainly a clear memory of a childhood moment, but it also feels ripe with metaphor; by the end of that piece, it is clear that Finney now understands the necessity of the whole fish. The girl returned as woman "wants what she has come for kept whole, all marrow and every organ accounted for, just as it was pulled from the sea." The measure of Finney's success as a poet is that this tale, both real and metaphoric, doesn't feel strained or forced on the reader.