Likely

“Lisa Coffman is a major poet in the making. Imagine a voice that combines hear-of-American brooding like James Wright’s with a shaded elegance like Elizabeth Bishop’s. Imagine Whitman’s spirit somewhere in the vicinity. Imagine a love of small towns ringed by mountains, a shrewd ear for lonely folks’ dialogue, and a music that seems to pour out of your own life as you read these poems. Likely is a book brimming with surprises and beauty; some of the poems—''Rapture,'' ''The Products of Hog,'' ''The Graveyard''—left me breathless.”—Alicia Suskin Ostriker, Judge