Maxine Kumin is a dangerous poet. Her works are not for the feint of heart in search of happy poems about rainbows and puppies. Selected Poems 1960-1990 gives a broad view of Kumin's poetic progression, sampling from nine of her published collections.
Often using formal structures for her poems, Kumin is far from formal in her choice of subjects, with poem titles such as "Heaven as Anus" and "The Excrement Poem."
I may be glib in referencing puppy poems, for Kumin does have a strong relationship to the animal world. But Kumin is a realist, as evidenced by these blunt lines to her horse from "Thinking of Death and Dogfood":
Amanda, you'll be going
to Alpo or to Gaines
when you run out of luck;
the flesh flensed from your bones
your mammoth rib cage rowing
away to the renderer's
a dry canoe on a truck...
This is not to say that Kumin is all doom and gloom. In fact, she can be very clever and witty in her poems. "Itinerary of an Obsession" is a downright playful poem, for instance:
Years pass, as they say in storybooks.
It is true that I dream of you less.
Still, when the phone rings in my sleep
and I answer, a dream-cigarette in my hand,
it is always the same. We are back at our posts,
hanging around like boxers in
our old flannel bathrobes. You haven't changed.
I, on the other hand, am forced to grow older.
Two example poems are not enough to provide ample illustration of the sweeping poetic talent of Maxine Kumin. Playful realist, scathing linguist, Kumin delights her readers with every well-turned phrase.
