Stranger in Town

Cedar Sigo's newest collection of poetry, Stranger in Town, is formidable and elegant.

The poems differ in style, but the mature, reflexive, and always verbally extremely talented voice of the writer is clear and consistent.

The poems have a polished and statuesque quality -- by which I mean they are perfectly crafted. But the fine technique is by no means formal and dry; there is a quiet, steady urgency to them. An emotional stirring. The writing is virile and muscular, yet delicate and fragile.

I guess what I'm responding to is a core current of content -- the expressive wonder and sometimes disillusionment of the poet in the world. The poet navigating life, love, art, sex, friendship, etc, but always, always navigating writing.

There were so many parts I loved in this book. If I had to choose a favorite poem (and I really really can't choose just one) it would be the prose piece Portrait of Sara Bilandzija which begins: "Not an utter stillness but one with a sometimes buried sometimes flickering spark. It was only to be uncovered via talk and subsequent closeness. Preparing tea without a tray."

Other moments that particularly moved me:

"There was one beauty there to sing
& another to divorce me,
Tell me I needn't fear, be kind"

-- From Song


"...None of this

concerns the poem as pure entrance,

what I have allowed & what I might do...

Fix myself against a long drink, write

out any trace of formal training in praise

of Jack. Go back and visit rulers of the interior.

Let loose our new books and prints."

-- From Showboat


And the final line of Simple Gift:

"Do not temper the spirit."