The Geese in Logic by Ann Douglas Ravenna Press, 2018 Much more than geese populate The Geese in Logic (Ravenna Press, 2018), an exquisitely carved, complex but endearingly approachable new book of poems by Ann Douglas. Just before the poems commence, two small lines provide a hint: “Recovering Apple Orchard / East Cascades.” Somewhat surprisingly, in the third poem --the title poem -- God appears among the geese and continues to pop up here and there in various manifestations throughout the book, sometimes baffling, sometimes nearly comical (a dictator, a business man.) “What is it He wants?” asks the speaker, “…breaking our rough pioneering hearts…” The book might be perceived as essentially one long poem, where consistent, smaller poems perform as chapters, full of not only avatars and creatures such as wild animals, witches, children, and flowers that converse among each other, places of nature such as craggy mountain tops and apple orchards with names so enticing as to prompt a reader to stop and make a list -- Birdwoman Glacier, Kestrel Ridge, Kettle Summit, Pyramid Point, Red-Tail Basin – and more. And the array is shared with abstractions such as gravity, draught, and commerce; koan-like mysteries and pseudo mathematical equations; and vivid imagery (“Wasps dig through foam.”) Yet, balance manages to prevail. Even rays of hope, solemn and beautiful and worthy of being put to music, escape from the poet’s words in the poem “Promise”: “. . . powerful winds / will scour spring, drive / snow in winter / but the ground will receive / you, its own--- / and provide in depth, a plush / mulch to accept you, storied layers / and leaves. The book, one hundred and six pages of loosely linked poems, consists of four unnamed parts whose first three sections contain some poems several pages long, which are themselves sometimes subdivided into invitingly titled sections (“Cabin Near Gravity,” “Homestead Yarrow”). But the poems in part IV are notably short, lyrically and hauntingly signaling summary. Despite the many multilayered and intertwined topics and characters, a reader might be tempted to be lulled by the poems’ simple shapes and consistent forms -- with a few stunning surprises (In “Speckled Fritillaries” which is inexplicitly, at least to me, so far, written all in italics; the name of the forenamed deity in “Curve” is spelled with a lower case G; and a carefully placed word shines alone on one glowing line, the second from last line in the final poem of the book, “Reveille.” This extraordinary word, “alchemical” supplies a succinct summary of the book itself, as well as pointing both back through the poem, with its waves of many histories, and forward to what may be a prophetic future. A reader soon senses that this is a poet whose every stroke delivers significance. One could be tempted to ponder this manuscript, so studded with puzzles, for decades, and still be instructed. But turn the page and a bold insight, powerfully compressed, may also compel one to return to these poems again and again. Visit Ravenna Press' Website

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