Heroin: And Other Poem Book

I almost think I like the photos of Naranjo-Morse's clay sculptures included in this volume more than the poems themselves. The poems are mostly fairly simple, but they display and communicate a deep love for her relatives, for the original language of her people, and most of all for the creative process itself, whether it manifests itself in human activity or some other guise. All of this is framed however by a profound sense of humor which gets communicated more through the figures than through the poems, so as a unit the book works very well. Too much seriousness and art degenerates into politics and becomes merely timely, casting a low grey ceiling over the work. It is the injection of whimsy, of the joy of simply being that creates, to paraphrase Leonard Cohen, the crack in everything that lets the light get in. This artist knows this well.