The image of paper, beautifully wrought as the controlling metaphor, runs through each poem sometimes to lament humanity lost over dazzling civilization, sometimes to call for restoration by means of everything good a sheet of paper symbolizes, all in a voice quite pithy and restrained.
This poetry book is a grain of seed in light of the poet’s longing for warm human nature, and of her effort to restore it; it also bears her love for paper.
If you tire out, all giddy
flustered navigating
from site to site,
then take a sheet of blank paper
and with all your mind
write down each letter of your name
stroke by stroke.
—from “Charm”
