The Father of the Predicaments

by Heather McHugh

Wesleyan University Press, 98 pp., $19.95

McHugh’s latest poems are quick and wise, reaffirming her reputation as a wordsmith. Her earlier work has been called sexy, an adjective that is too simple for this collection. Except for the wonderfully titled poems “So Thick?” (a tribute of sorts to Freud) and “My Hexahedron Mated With His Cone,” these poems are more airborne than earthy. Of the body, McHugh prefers bone to flesh: “My Maine is bone;/my west is flesh. The latter has no place/without the former, but the former/has a future out of mind.” The greatest appeal is the poems’ interplay; they are cerebral, funny, and whimsical. Significantly, McHugh is unafraid of raw emotion and spirituality: “Since flesh/cannot be saved, supply for love/a fairer figure, finer ground.” Through a wide range of material, from suicide to Aristotle, these poems are a quick tumble from the detail of the world into transcendence, via language and a wild mind.

This article appears in January 14 • 2000.

A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.

SUPPORT US