[Maxine Kumin] is not much anthologized or discussed, and I suspect that many readers have been aware of her, as I was until recently, only as a name. At any rate, if there are such readers, I have good news for them: Kumin is very much worth discovering, and [Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief and Why Can't We Live Together Like Civilized Human Beings?] are an excellent introduction. (p. 1)
The arrangement [of Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief] is reverse chronological, beginning with the latest work and ending with the earliest; and selections from the later volumes are … generous, including 31 poems from the most recent as against nine from the earliest. I am glad to report that this heavy emphasis on the recent work seems fully justified, on the grounds both of quality and of contemporary resonance.
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