Marginal Utility

Poetry. Tracey McTague treats words as marvels of nature and concentrates them. She writes most lines as independent units in a collage poetics, yet the self-aware passions of her unconscious conjure a pagan abandon. She sees beyond the senses and beyond sentences. A pent-up-ness sweeps away grammar. Many of her lines read like 13-stroke Chinese characters in translation. Her clipped lyricism suits a scale that is galaxy big, including cigarettes and a thong. Primal, not primitive. MARGINAL UTILITY is a safe ride with a dangerous driver, and you'll be left excited.--John Godfrey