Reviews

Wesleyan Magazine

– Suzanna Tamminen '90, in Wesleyan Magazine, 2001/02/11

Rick Barot's first book of poems is wise and lovely. To read these poems is to be taken by the hand and gently led into the world and all of its uncertainties. Barot sees with a clear eye, and calls things as he sees them. Bird, wave, bus ride—each is lovingly described, delineated, words opening up chambers of meaning, "the startled fact." Life is a "room so spare/ that we bring to it what we can" yet "We must always / be prepared to learn something totally new" to "let your window / open to the rain coming down." Each poem is a catalog and a compass of desire. This is a book to be treasured for its clarity of vision, and the precision and musicality of its language. Barot is currently Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford University.