The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart: Poems Book

Wow. The title series bowled me over -- through simple, spare verse, Calvocoressi creates a portrait of the creation of a modern myth. The "Circus Fire" series didn't feel as essential or interesting to me as the other poems of the book -- the subject was a bit familiar, the drive behind the poems familiar as well.

The "Adult Movie" poems... some wow me in a big way and, formally, I like that they move along, linked but looking at the event from various perspectives. They're shocking, and progress in surprising ways. The ideas and events of "The Death of Towns" -- talking about the bell foundry, the work it gave the town, the polluted river and still-borns. It's powerful. And not "lite."