ASSURANCE

Hood’s poems play with form as they explore themes of faith, hope, and love in this collection.

In this volume, the poet regards social phenomena—haircuts, gender identity, the contrasts between the past and present-day life, American culture, family, marriage, aging, and mortality—with compassion and acceptance. One of the collection’s more didactic poems, “Talking and Listening,” emphasizes the loss of love between people when communication breaks down, while “Purchased Kisses” upholds the sacredness of small intimacies. Of the more personal poems, “Dreams Before…” expresses loneliness in truth and quietness, while “Despair” uses sweet rhymes to express a bitter emotion. There is a simplicity in the author’s voice that evokes picking up a familiar object, observing it from several angles, then putting it down gently, as in “The Ayers Maple”: “I wonder and notice again / A small stone plaque placed to remind / Succeeding generations that those who were once young / Loved maples, too, And oaks / enough to plant them.” The poems alternate between long and short line lengths, occasionally employing end rhymes that are sometimes a bit contrived but always fun, even when the subject matter has somber undertones, as in “Real”: “When you are lost / You need to stop / To clear your clouded mind / To quiet fears / To ponder doubts / To let them go / To move on with your find…” Even when the form is playful, the speaker always finds a way back to the crux of the poem, and each ending is satisfying, often containing a moral. The poems on gender and sexuality are somewhat reductive; “The Cross Dresser” opens with an onlooker’s presumption: “Clothes are one way / You try to say / Just who you think you are. / You snap a photo with your phone / To twitter near -or far.” The most powerful pieces in the collection are the confessional poems, which are vulnerable and honest, including “And Now That I am Eighty-two” and “Who Are You?”

A humble volume of poems that advocates kindness and exemplifies wisdom.