Vol. 2, Number 1	Spring 1999 issue

 

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"This book is not about AIDS." Powell says as much before we reach page one. And it becomes quite clear as we read on that our poet did not get sick and start to write. He wrote--and happened to get sick.

However, AIDS is the central subject of these poems. And though writers of many genres have addressed AIDS before, Powell has added something different to the literature. He has begun to develop a system of allusion by which to contextualize the AIDS phenomenon and place it within a wider literary tradition. In glancing over the notes in the back of the volume, one finds sources ranging from the Vergil to Macbeth to Tennessee Williams to Donna Summer.

Also, Powell has given the topic of AIDS a treatment in a genre-- serious poetry--that espouses the merits of both subtlety and ambiguity. He assures the disease a measure of humanity which the medical pamphlet and the news magazine cannot guarantee.

Powell is a skilled and thoughtful poet. At his best, he has infused a subject burdened by shock value with a subtlety it deserves. He has given those affected by AIDS a work of art in which to see their trials depicted with emotional clarity, intellect, and care. He has, in general, avoided the clinical, the trite, and the melodramatic, and managed to ground AIDS in a specific and finely drawn, yet wide-ranging cultural landscape.