Books, Arts & Manners: Facing the Gorgon

Cross Ties: Selected Poems, by X. J. Kennedy (Georgia, 166 pp., $16.95 cloth, $9.95 paper)

XJ. Kennedy has referred to himself as “one of the endangered species”: His allegiance to traditional verse forms verifies that he is indeed a breed apart from many of his contemporaries. While not all are equally rewarding, the poems in Cross Ties are of a range and depth that demonstrate the viability and elasticity of a poetic voice that submits willingly to the strictures of meter and rhyme. In this collection we find the sumptuous and the spare, the raucous and the reserved, the poignant and the sardonic. “Cross Ties,” “Schizophrenic Girl,” “Poets,” “Daughter in the House,” and “Old Men Pitching Horseshoes” are only some of the best.

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Loxley F. Nichols

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Cross Ties: Selected Poems, by X. J. Kennedy (Georgia, 166 pp., $16.95 cloth, $9.95 paper)

XJ. Kennedy has referred to himself as “one of the endangered species”: His allegiance to traditional verse forms verifies that he is indeed a breed apart from many of his contemporaries. While not all are equally rewarding, the poems in Cross Ties are of a range and depth that demonstrate the viability and elasticity of a poetic voice that submits willingly to the strictures of meter and rhyme. In this collection we find the sumptuous and the spare, the raucous and the reserved, the poignant and the sardonic. “Cross Ties,” “Schizophrenic Girl,” “Poets,” “Daughter in the House,” and “Old Men Pitching Horseshoes” are only some of the best.