The Night Before the Day on Which

Jean Day has been an admired presence in the poetry avant-garde landscape for decades. In 1988, her first Roof title heralded the arrival of a scrappy initiate to the scene, A Young Recruit. Now Day is at the top of her game, becoming a "Secret Agent," sweeping across the US on a noir-tinged cross-country road trip. We all feel that " The bomb went off a little too soon" and are left contemplating the rubble. In lieu of a clear itinerary, the poems offer instances of shimmer in the continuous present. Threads of story, macro and mini, form the warp for the book's overall texture. The sound of resistance, the urgency of movement, and the flowering of detail are the book's matter and material. Lyric is its shape.