Point of View

The collection consistently uses the first person speaker, rooted in the confessional intimacy of poetic reflection. However, the speaker emphasizes the fallibility of her own representation as a contingent and subjective narrator. For example, the speaker states: “I did not know him, I knew my idea / of him” and concludes “I do not let / go of him yet, but...watch my idea of him pull away / and stay, and pull away, my silver kite” (75). This enforces the speaker’s image of her lost beloved as detached from his physical being, always already distorted, contaminated, and impacted by variables of space, time, and distance.

Language and Meaning

The majority of the collection uses free verse, which lacks rhyme and consistent metrical patterns, often imitating the cadence of speech. This grants the poetry a vernacular intimacy that rejects rigidity. However, certain poems depart from free verse, including...