Lobotomy Magnificat

Bert Almon is a professor of English at the University of Alberta and a
poet. He is the author of Calling Texas, Earth Prime, and Mind the Gap.

Kathy Shaidle is a well-read person who is intensely interested in moral
issues. This book is largely a series of portraits of famous people,
among them Jack Ruby, Thomas Merton, Frida Kahlo, James Dean, Flannery
O’Connor, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Rosemary Kennedy (a JFK sibling on
whom a lobotomy was performed in 1941). One of the more interesting
poems deals with a madman’s attack on Michelangelo’s Pietа in 1972.
Unfortunately, this poem gets lost after a while in details about the
restoration of the work. A poem about a notorious murderer, Evelyn Dick,
trails off in a way that blunts its impact. The collection as a whole
wobbles between moral outrage and prurience, showing an uncertain
command of tone. The content is interesting and the style is often
sophisticated, but the effect is literary when it is meant to be
visceral.