Laura Fargas writes about essential things. Her rich, short, taut, and cutting poems are filled with hard-won knowledge. They expand beyond the page and startle us with their insights.-EDWARD HIRSCH

The poems in Laura Fargas' new book are short, very short. Most are a mere seven lines--half a sonnet. Yet each bite-size morsel is as rich and satisfying as a seven-course meal. Each is filled with language both elevated and crude, observations both sacred and profane. They are served to us in ordinary time, time spent between fasting and feasting, but nourishing and green with possibility. How can they be light as an angel's breath and dense as the Book of Knowledge? Because they are created by a master chef, skilled and unstinting. Just pull up a seat. And eat. -BARBARA GOLDBERG