"The poet Ann Carter's new book, Sweetness: Collected Poems 1974-2009 is a simple gift. Among the 58 poems that comprise this slim volume are cameo appearances of a heroine who always knows the score in games of romance and recites them in a wise-guy little-girl voice that is ironic and wistful at the same time. Among my favorite lines are Since I swore off romance, the full moon rise/Is tonight's big event, a celestial floor show/Where a Mae West moon shoulders out/In iridescent orange and then lets those clothes/Fall for the moon white skin she's in."
Ann Carter:
Poetry
"This is a mostly honest book -- full of hope and cluelessness, false starts and races won. It contains, in no particular order, womanly bittersweetness, human longing, reverence for nature, gaudy miracles, and complete confusion."
