Come and see

the long version

In Fanny Howe's latest collection of poems, she beckons us toward the origins of both our collective knowing and our misperception. These poems move from one country to another and from one archetypal position--parent, grandparent, child--to another in the wake of the twentieth century. Certain movies provide an almost religious resolution to questions and experiences. "I don't blame the children for anything," Howe writes in one poem. "Their century is like a director who prefers his script to his actors." With startling revelation and lyrical power, Come and See urges us to observe the world anew.