Cuore, Il

by Kathleen Fraser

Published 19 September 1997
il cuore: the heart is a major new collection of poetry by Kathleen Fraser, one of the most significant poets of the last generation and a writer of unusual courage and inventiveness. From the intimacy of early poems to the syntactic play of her much-praised book, when new time folds up (1993), Fraser's work examines fields of possibility, where the visual, theoretical, and lyrical collide. This book provides a generous selection of work both new and old, tracing the development of her poetics over the last three decades. Rich with detail, these poems radicalize intention by embracing error, as in "boundayr," and reassert language innovation as a feminist strategy. They lead us toward "the infinity of a door only slightly ajar" and have established Fraser as one of America's preeminent experimental writers.