Guesswork

In this splendid new collection, Jeffery Donaldson shifts deftly between the incisive short lyric and the extended meditation, oscillating between detachment and engagement. In "Torso," the headless sculpture of Apollo is both chiselled rock and the changeling child of multiple observers. In "Enter, PUCK," elements of a hockey game twist in the fascinating funhouse mirror that lines the depths of Donaldson's personal Platonic cave. Revealing a mind at once conversant with literary deities and the subtleties of the everyday, Guesswork confirms that exacting craftsmanship, supple syntax, and an unerring sense of rhythm are everything but guesswork.