One can never change the core of things, and light burns you the harder for it.

Difficult, but often beautiful. ( )

Not a complete waste. "Faust" and "Idaho" adumbrate narratives; "The Unknown Travelers" might deploy a metaphor? "Europe" has ambition, and I almost enjoyed "Rain."

And yet, you would do just as well to cut up and re-assemble any favored lines scattered throughout the project, and in most cases would end up with a poem at least as coherent as any that those lines are removed from.

Maybe I lack the receptivity or preparation necessary to appreciate what's going on here, and I'm probably imagining things, but there are moments when even the poet seems to share my ambivalence about his endeavor:

"...the child's scream/Is perplexed, managing to end the sentence."
"...all was a bright black void"
"He had mistaken his book for garbage" ( )

Not poetry that appeals to me. I need some sense of narrative or place to pull me in.