Dark and Perfect Angels by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (review)

Reviews 285 Dark and Perfect Angels. By Benjamin Alire Saenz. (El Paso, Texas: Cinco Puntos Press, 1995. 134 pages, $11.95.) Saenz takes us through a deep search for understanding in this impressive book of poetry. The poems are divided into four sections. The first is given the label “Winter,” and the biblical passage at the beginning of this section accu­ rately describes what is coining, a series of poems beseeching the Lord to hear the prayers of the poet, who is wounded and in need. The second section, “Novena for Lost Angels,” details the poet’s descent into himself as he confronts people from his past, people he has known, others from his family whom he has been told about, and archetypal connections to his cultural history. These “dark and perfect angels” exert a strong influence on his life, particularly his grandfa­ ther (“I see his eyes, black, awful even now./1 see his thick stem lips, the hint of a smile he never/ Wore in life.”). The third section, “Prayer for the Holy and the Dead,” charts the beginnings of rebirth. The poems affirm that wrestling with the ghosts of his past is leading him to a new, more serene life. The final section, “Summer,” confirms his growth. He now pledges to put away his “robes of mourning” and “live”: “A tree in summer/ drinks the rain./1 will/ to be that tree.” The use of seasons to label the beginning and ending of his quest is especially appropriate because so much of life along the border of the United States and Mexico is so closely attuned to and defined by nature. Saenz is a master wordsmith who uses a variety of word arrangements to craft his vision. Also, his metaphors sparkle in their clarity. When he writes, “His fingers feel the glass/ As if they were touching the smooth skin/ Of a virgin. I watched his tongue lick loving/ Glass like I had never seen him kiss my moth­ er,” readers see, know, and feel the power alcohol had over his father. Finally, Saenz does not short-change his own complexity. Though a lot of what he writes is immediately accessible, these poems require work and reflection, an effort I highly recommend. EDGAR H. THOMPSON Emory & Henry College Vortex of Indian Fevers. By Adrian C. Louis. (Evanston, Illinois: TriQuarterly Books, 1995. 68 pages, $9.95.) For Adrian C. Louis, this book of poems breaks no new ground. True, the social protest is perhaps more direct and a few decibels fiercer than in previous books, as Louis blasts away at the Statue of Liberty, the Vietnam War, and the State of Nevada (“a deep cesspool of greed”), ancestral home of his Paiute peo­ ple. Basically, though, Louis’s message has not changed over the years. He writes to dispel the romantic notion, so dear to New Agers and others, that ...