Under the Pergola

<p>Always spirited and elegant by turns witty and meditative Catharine Savage Brosman's Under the Pergola contemplates Louisiana past and present before traveling a broader path that crosses Colorado landscapes and the island of Sicily.<br />In her eighth collection of poems Brosman evokes the Pelican State's trees birds rivers swamps bayous New Orleans scenes historic houses and colorful characters. She also recounts in free verse formal verse and one prose poem the "misdeeds of Katrina" as she and others experienced them.<br />Other poems range widely from reflections on writers Samuel Johnson Paul Claudel André Malraux and James Dickey to quiet meditations on the American West Odysseus fruits and vegetables and the recent "light years" of the poet's life -- which she characterizes as "silken... slipping smoothly off" like a gown.</p>