JUNE IN EDEN

Sometimes ,June in Eden ,occupies a garden in a wild landscape. Other times, were given a terrain where the coveted tree is one that hides a cell tower, where lungs are likened to ATMs and prayers are sent via text message. Rosalie Ruth Moffetts debut collection of poetry, ,June in Eden, ,questions the human task of naming in a time where there are new kinds of war that keep / changing the maps, where little mistakes-preying ,or ,praying, for instance-are easily made. The heart of this book is an obsession with language, its slippages and power, what to do when faced with the loss of it. Ruth, says our speaker, is a kind of compassion / nobody wants anymore-the surviving half / of the pair of words is ,ruthless. There is, throughout this collection, a dark humor, but one that belies a tenderness or wonder, our human need to love the world / we made and all its shadows. Rosalie Moffetts ,June in Eden ,gives us a speaker bewildered by and in awe of the world