Marge Piercy's last book Living in the Open was an excellent one. [The Twelve-Spoked Wheel Flashing] extends some of the themes of the book—of being a woman, a roving poet, a gardener—but not always successfully. The last book was—as the title implied—"open." Here she imposes a seasonal scheme on the poems which does little for the book except to make it look more ordered.
What I often admire in Marge Piercy's work is her ability to give lyrical yet tough-minded exposés of difficult relationships. Often, the emotional courage of her work and her flowing rhythms work together—as a shock, then a healing salve. The danger is that she sometimes over-writes. She is very good when she is cryptic and fanciful at the same time, as here in "the meaningful exchange." The poem teeters on the edge of the surreal and the absurd, but succeeds in making its point very economically and disturbingly.
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