[Tess Gallagher's poems in Stepping Outside] are subtle; one thinks, somehow, of underground passages that recurve on themselves, so that the adventurer is expelled at the exact spot he entered the maze, retaining the conviction of hidden treasure; or, of the accomplished stripper, who has vanished from the stage by the time the yokels realize that it is her sequined G-string that is spinning toward them through the smoky air. You will notice that in both these analogies the baffled reader is represented as male, and I suspect that if Tess's poems ever do give themselves up fully it will only be to a few other women. There is a defiance toward men that is usually gentle but always meant: not a rock bottom but the bottom of a net—one is not hurt but all the same stopped, not allowed…. But it would be unfair to say that this book is a feminist document. Tess is a great lover of men…. (p. 364)
Tess's style is her own and needs to be experienced. The language is always incisive; her ambiguity never bases itself on vagueness. The "cheap shot" is quite noticeably absent, and no poem is longer than it needs to be. This is a beautiful and also a refreshing book. (p. 365)
Robert Ross, "New Poems: Tess Gallagher," in Prairie Schooner (© 1976 by University of Nebraska Press; reprinted by permission from Prairie Schooner), Vol. 49, No. 4, Winter, 1975–76, pp. 364-65.
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