Wit and sorrow run throughout the poems of Susan Snivelys third collection. Inpoems about divorce family and travel Snively is a woman holding a balancebetween ... » 

Wit and sorrow run throughout the poems of Susan Snivelys third collection. Inpoems about divorce family and travel Snively is a woman holding a balancebetween the little I ask for and the little I get sorting theindifference and the rage from the secret joy. Humor sometimes directed atherself is a source of joy in Too Late where Snively sorts throughchildhood ambitions ballet dancer famous actress nuclear physicist singer to arrive at what she is a decent cook a glutton jeweled with the glazeof manners eager to please while pleasuring her mouth. Language and speechbecome the greatest source of wisdom affection and pleasureTo love a wordwine for example is to love the thingitself as well as the occasion voluptuous evening hour barite friends that stirs it into shimmer so that reflectiontastes the same as a life without regret.In the final sequence The Undertow Snively writes of the deaths of herparents retrieving her connection with her southern upbringing in the ancienthillbilly lament whauunh part curse part yodel that comes out of me past years of booklarnin. «