Carol Alexander

Environments Carol Alexander

Poetry. Enviromental Studies. Carol Alexander's latest poetry book, ENVIRONMENTS, is steeped in our time. It is forthright and often poignant. With confident voice and consummate skill she illuminates truths that rest, uneasy, at the forefront of our collective consciousness: deforestation, endangered species, wildfires, earthquake, flood, urban decline, hunger, war, genocide, human slavery, plight of refugees--extraordinary violence become ordinary. Each poem emerges slowly and whole. She does not sensationalize; she does not proselytize. She accurately portrays our time, reminding us in the final lines of the final poem, 'Essential Oils', 'Dormant fields keep their vegetal cold. / A stick of burning leaves in the room -- / so quickly it is cleansed of us'.--Ann Howells