I was SO close to giving this 3 stars- a bump from the last Willis book I read, but ultimately not a ton of praise. Most of the book falls into that category: Willis does a good job playing with language, and the frankenstein nature of this collection provides an interesting separation of style, as though you were watching somebody's highlight reel and stopping a while during each season. However, very few of the poems stood out or attached themselves to me; I didn't see much reason to invest more in the work. But I did, I chugged on through, and there were some solid rewards along the way.

What bums this up to 4 stars is the title poem at the end of the book, "Alive". It's a spectacular piece of writing, probably in my top 10 ten poems immediately. Supposedly it was written for a live performance, I'll have to look it up. It's an irregular (but not unheard of) style, connecting little thoughts almost like a disjointed piece of prose. Some of the thoughts seem simple and benign, some are quirky or artsy. But the through-lines between them, the string pulling the poem along, becomes more powerful as you progress. Few poems with that much length have really drawn me in so well and so efficiently. The way that Willis plays with language throughout this book (meaning throughout her career) paid off well in that final poem, which was deserving of titling the book.

All in all, a good book. High peaks and fairly low valleys, but throughout I though it was ok. I would not say this is a book that can be eagerly enjoyed by casual poetry readers, my appreciation of it largely came from my understanding of poetry as a culture and craft. ( )