rev. of Citizen by Andrew Feld

Citizen, poems by Andrew Feld (Perennial): Elegant, frank, and wise, the poems in Andrew Feld’s first book initially appear composed; yet, within each is a narrative that, in its unfolding, becomes dangerous in its revelation. This is a book of journeys, literal and figurative, as Feld transverses an earlier American landscape menaced by encroaching civilization, and the dramatic landscape of the Cold War with its cast of corrupt, booze-addled politicians: "a whisper of vermouth tasting like amnesia / in the gin’s frostbitten false fire, the warmth / of each sip drawing them closer together." Through the course of reading these poised poems, one becomes witness to a compelling transformation as the speaker moves from a muffled state of consciousness to view both the world and himself with startling and profound clarity. —Cate Marvin