Lee Briccetti

There are notes in the back that let the reader know that "Blue guides derive from the 19th century guidebook tradition. They specialize in art and architecture." Indeed, I later looked up Blue Guides and they exist today and can be ordered at blueguides.com. The webpage includes sample pages and they look like excellent guides for travel in Europe, especially if you are inclined to seek out important works of art and architecture.

In the first two sections of the book, Blue Guide I and Blue Guide II, Lee Briccetti uses images of travels in Rome, thoughts on Roman history, sightseeing encounters with statues and ruins but also surprising images of homelessness, illness, torture and sickness. There are many references and quotes from modern day poets and their poetry including Wallace Stevens and Walt Whitman. She also uses the long dash line quite a bit in her poetry so I was immediately reminded of Emily Dickinson.

There are themes and references that pop up in all parts of this book including hints of a kidnapping or search for a victim of a kidnapping and possible murder. The color blue is often used as well as references to Rome and Roman history.

Later sections include Biophilia, Faces of North America and Recognition Scene. The eponymous poem titled Biophilia has some great imagery...Here are the first three stanzas:

Biophilia

The purple crocus pushes through the snowmelt
charming & fresh. But nature
is also a wild spat of cells
on my earlobe--let's hope
that can be removed
Accepting flowers' abundant adjacencies,

I also accept pink eye, the cloud forest
alive with yellow-eared
parakeets irreplaceable
in living dependencies
& the mosquito
siphoning her warm blood meal

on the wide sofa of my
mammalian thigh, evolved
over millions of year.
Elegant, messy, antigen-mystery,
I rejoice in specificity.

For me this is a book of poetry that needed research and I really should check it out again and re-read because there are so many references and meanings that are unfamiliar to me. Regardless, Lee Briccetti is an interesting poet and I enjoyed Blue Guide, but her poetry takes time and careful reading.… (more)