Secret Room, The

Poet and publisher James Laughlin is known in Italy as the Amerian Catullus. Like the Latin poet whom Laughlin calls master, the subject at the heart of his work remains "love/ . . . & the lack of love, /which is what makes evil", but seen now from the wry, often poignant perspective of old age. The nearly 150 poems collected here address his mature theme in a variety of ways.