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*Henry Gould. Island Road.. 2005. No page numbers.

I read this book while I was proctoring the M.A. exam this morning. It contains 99 numbered poems divided into five sections. Gould satisfies me often on the level of the phrase and line, also, frequently, on the level of the short poem. I'm less sure of his larger structures. I made no concerted effort to connect the poems with one another, although Shakespeare's sonnet "That year in me ..." recurs throughout the first section.

I liked the poem for Chet Baker.

There's an autodidact or amateur quality in this writing. Not in the bad sense; I mean the sense of someone cultivating his own garden. All Island roads do lead to the sea, as Henry reminds us. That aphorism can be understood on many levels.