The Collected Poems

Betsy Struthers is a poet and novelist and the author of Found: A Body.

This reviewer was dismayed to read in Gom’s introduction that this
will be her “last book of poetry (although poets have said this before
and lied).” The temptations of fiction have overtaken a fine poet
whose work, rooted in prairie family life and branching into a
preoccupation with the violence that underscores female lives, has
rewarded readers for the last 20 years.

This is a comprehensive collection, beginning with selections from
Kindling (1972) and The Singletree (1975). This early work sometimes
stumbles into prose, sometimes reflects too clearly the influences of
the Black Mountain school. Nevertheless, the seeds of Gom’s later,
more accomplished work are here in the images taken from farm life, in
the deceptively everyday voice, and in the concern with family
relationships.

Land of the Peace (1980), Northbound (1984), and Private Properties
(1986) develop these interests in a language rich with deeply felt
emotion that is controlled by metaphor and irony. Anger at political and
social injustice begins to balance the poems that explore personal
wounds and family history.

It is interesting to follow the narrative threads that link these poems
over time, and to see the development of themes and the growing mastery
of poetic craft. Fiction has lured Gom away from poetry (she has
published two novels since 1986), but, let us hope, not forever.