The Way They Say Yes Here

Poetry. Mallarme's vision of a poesie pure came from his work as a translator. It was the slippage of arbitrary and always transient words, their unstable motion, which freed them from the deadening trap of easy or obvious association to leave them energized and pure. A time spent in Africa provided this kind of estrangement for Jacqueline Lyons, changing and charging her relation to her own language by giving her another. Now, in her first collection of poems, Lyons reveals a pure accuracy of gaze in an essential, necessary poetry. Her compassion and understanding are exemplary - and deeply moving. These poems are completely unsentimental, constantly testing language angainst the physical facts of the actual, miraculous and heart-breaking world. Lyons was born in Wisconsin, received her MFA from Colorado State University, and is completing a PhD at the University of Utah. These poems grow out of a three year stint in the Peace Corps, where she served in Lesotho, South Africa.