Desire Lines: New and Selected Poems

The poems in Desire Lines, both new and selected, give shape to the desires we must nourish in ourselves if we are to retain our compassion. As such, the poems collaborate as a series of variations on the theme of desire, much like the way a motif weaves through a piece of music or a thread through a tapestry. Although Haskins seldom writes autobiographically, many of her poems give voice to other women, both historical and imagined. Haskins is an accomplished pianist and her poetry is flush with music, tonalities and modulations. Fittingly, there are ample poems from her celebrated 1990 collection, Forty-Four Ambitions for the Piano as well as three dozen new poems. Appoggiatura and Fermata Fermata, the older sister, envies Appoggiatura's easy grace, covets the way she slides downstairs on silvery heels. Appoggiatura teases Dad until he beams, changes into honey for Mom. Alone, she wanders room to room. She is real only in the mirror of someone's f