| R. S. Gwynn, The Hudson Review:
In the space I have remaining, I want to call attention to two first books which demonstrate both considerable ability and promise of good things to come. Diane Thiel's Echolocations is the winner of the thirteenth annual Nicholas Roerich Prize. The poems in the book's first section deal with Thiel's attempts to come to terms with her German heritage: It will take many lifetimes to reclaimA close-mouthed immigrant father offers little help. Fleeing the approaching Russians, he and his friend, both teenagers, cross a field planted with lettuce and anti-personnel mines: "His friend ran a few lengths ahead, / like a wild rabbit across the grass, / turned his head, looked back once, / and his body was scattered across the field." The father tells the story, then continues eating supper. The war's lingering effects haunt the poet's childhood "in the volume of his anger / in the bruises we covered up with sleeves," but she is never quite able to penetrate his bastion of silence. In the book's other parts, Thiel shows skill at evoking places—Her hometown of Miami in "South Beach Wedding" or a Colombian beach in the book's title piece—but I want to single out one short poem for special praise, "In the Thirtieth Year," which deftly parodies J. V. Cunningham's "In the thirtieth year of life / I took my heart to be my wife": In the thirtieth year of life, |
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