The Very Thought of You

Andy Robbins concludes, in ""Au bout de l'anglais,"" that ""Art and life are not the same. Never."" He challenges the nature of both with this volume of highly personal, sensual, searching poetry that treats life as a work in progress, with love, in all its aspects, as its driving force. Creating poems as technically skilled as they are emotionally powerful, Robbins uses a variety of formal and idiomatic dictions. Though the individual works are as unique in subject as in structure, the book is unified by a discomfort with emotional and intellectual stagnancy, with ancient mythology, religious doctrines, and popular culture. The book radiates the immediate energy of mind in action, question, and reflection, challenging the very thought of writer and reader.