Stele

Poetry. "Cole Swensen's STELE goes forth with an artful, graceful balancing as in a minuet, stopping, bowing and then moving towards new thought. This reading 'presumes a crossing' of empty space in each line. This crossing is a waking dream, linking action with image. The interval grows until it changes how one reads this work. Simple rhythmic constraints of diction and of space construct a fluid but uneven chiasm where one starts to read down and across at once, too eerily different musical scores. Sophisticated, in a refined, unhurried measure, the more STELE gains restraint, the more ardent it becomes."—Norma Cole