French for Soldiers

the long version

“…There’s an angular extravagant, exploding feel throughout. Some of that extravagance is formal exploration and variation; the language powers at the center of it, though; Nyhart shocks and delights her reader, not so much through fantastic premises, situations, as through the fantasy and change-up of the language itself. There’s no firm ground in this book; everything’s quaking or erupting, straining in a strong wind, fissuring onto the white page. Nyhart speaks in colors, fantastic figures; the syntax and diction goes haywire, the point-of-view hops about. She writes, finally, with unity and control, though, and dreamy release.” —Richard Silberg, *Poetry Flash* (June 1987) “Nyhart’s poems are a delight, her images darting quick as multicolored birds in a way that is both surprising and utterly natural.” —Ruth Whitman <small>from Alice James</small>