The narrators in Taken seem to be constantly hovering between different worlds: dream and reality, despair and enlightenment, love and detachment. On the one hand, the collection is a narrative: the use of a dramatic three-act structure bears this out. Taken begins with evocations of a troubled childhood and follows their consequences to a final resolution. On the other hand, Taken suggests that life is an endlessly unfolding cycle. Like any drama, the forward momentum is driven by conflict. The hard realism of some poems is contradicted by the surreal qualities of others. Moments of enlightenment sit alongside moments of doubt. Epiphany is balanced by a cosmic view of time. And like any cycle, the arrangement of the poems, and many of the poems themselves, repeat and return to the same concerns. The spiritual predicament that emerges from the collection is deeply personal, concise, unflinching. The poems are accessible but offer no easy answers. To read this collection from start to finish is to undertake a journey that circles slowly but relentlessly towards healing.
