LUCIA PERILLO, INSEMINATING THE ELEPHANT --POETRY!

Balancing on the axis between the absurd and the transcendent, MacArthur fellow Perillo counters the clinical extremes of science with earthy irreverence in her latest collection of wry, over-the-speed-limit poems. With forays into wildlife management and medical time served, what with her multiple sclerosis, Perillo writes with empathy and sneaky wit about the sacrificial animals in lab studies. Facing gore and death without puking is a rite of passage, but a steady forensic gaze does not preclude compassion or wild humor. Perillo offers a crazy ode to Girl Scouts singing on their knees, an erotic view of an elephant, and a cathartic wallop of an answer to Auden in Rebuttal, in which her contemplation of Brueghel is rudely interrupted. Memories of shoplifting meat in college open into musings on hunger and hubris, while an ad for Viagra sparks thoughts of Niagara and the urge to ride its torrent: doesnt part of us want to be broken to bits? / After all, our bodies are what cage us. Yes, but poetry as wise and effervescent as Perillossets us free.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)