Barbaric Mercies Gaylord Brewer. Red Hen (CDC, dist.), $12.95 (88p) ISBN 1-888996-67-6
Gaylord Brewer’s Barbaric Mercies is a book of extraordinary and delightful individuality. Alternately aggressive, outrageous, whimsical, and heartfelt, the poems are never predictable but always authentic. The author has such a genius for phrasing that there are many lines that make the reader stop and sigh or smile. A dark and delicious volume.