American Fractal Laurie Blauner. Red Hen (CDC, dist.), $18.95 (104p) ISBN 978-1-59709-130-5
In Timothy Green’s appropriately titled American Fractal a whole vision is created from fragments of American myths, family, religion, the body, holidays, money, food, art, lovers, science, ads, and even earthquakes. His poems are wonderfully original and American in their irony– a kind-hearted irony with truth as its goal. With his subjects ‘…each image one moment / behind the last catching up and catching up.’ Startling and alive, these are self-aware poems that break apart and then come back together. Green writes, ‘One thing is always / mistaken for / another, as if accident were / the fundamental attribute of life.’ Green’s poems build with language, imagery, and a sweet cleverness into surprising commentaries and imaginative revelations. This is an outstanding first book.