Rattlesnake Plantain

Douglas Barbour is a professor of English at the University of Alberta.
He is the author of Lyric/anti-lyric : Essays on Contemporary Poetry,
Breath Takes, and Fragmenting Body Etc.

Heidi Greco has waited to publish her first book, and the result is a
solid, well-crafted collection of poems on a wide range of subjects,
with a wide range of subjective perspectives. Rattlesnake Plantain moves
through varied tales and myths, into some raucous and ribald comedy, and
engages the world with a keen eye for detail.

Some of the poems seem to be in the voice of the poet herself, but many
are spoken through a number of intriguing personae. I found the poems
that seemed most fictional the most entertaining and engaging. In all
her poems, she displays a talent for the sharp image, the concise and
precise comment. Still, it’s in a narrative poem like “After
Visiting a Friend’s Parrot, Jungle Nightmares Persist,” where the
narrator creates a Borgesian tale in dreamlike fragments, that she
excels. And when she gives in to her comic muse, the results are
raunchily hilarious, as in “Sex in the Tropics” or “Country
Western Poem.” Greco has a fine sense of the line, and uses a spare
language to powerful effect. Rattlesnake Plantain is a strong first
volume from a poet who knows how to make traditional lyric and narrative
poetry sting.