[In Change-Up: New Poems Souster] gives us one of the freshest and best books he has ever written. There is nothing radically new, only modest developments, in technique and subject-matter. But the vignettes of city and domestic life are clearer and more vivid, the language still more transparent, with fewer of those occasional verbal blotches that make us uncomfortably conscious there is someone between us and the experience trying to influence our feelings. Above all, the candour and sincerity are more undeniable than ever. Souster refuses to become slick and glib. If his pitying hand slips too easily into his pocket to bribe a beggar's outstretched palm, Souster himself is the first to notice it and feel ashamed. There is, I think, a more somber view of reality than ever, yet never histrionic, always embodied in the facts of life closest to the poet's experience. Only he could...