IMPORTANCE of PEELING POTATOES in UKRAINE, The

Mark Yakich s acclaimed debut collection, Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross, examined the blessing and curse of romantic love in its multiplicities. The poems in his new collection approach questions of suffering and atrocity (e.g., war, genocide, fallen soufflés) with discerning humor and unconventional comedy. These poems show how humor can be taken as seriously as straight-ahead solemnity and how we can re-envision solemnity in terms other than lamentation, protest, and memorial. This bold second collection is profane, political and humorous in its engagement with what it means to live, especially as a poet, in terrible times. A former National Poetry Series winner, Yakich (Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross ) showcases a mixture of dark wit (in poems with titles like “Spell to Bring Me Osama Bin Laden”); clowning sorrow (“When I apply my manhood like makeup,/ Everything is at once promising/ and suspect”); strident opinions (“Let the mind worry/ about the logic. But don’t // Forget to drag the body,/ As witness, through the sand”); and sociopolitical awareness (“What about a flag of bacon? Oh I would/ Not have the courage to fly it”). Private poems (on family, parenthood, sex, suicide) mediate between, and meditate on, the book’s otherwise public focus, showing a softer side of Yakich’s agile lyricism: “Paper,// Tell the tree/ I’m sorry.// Tree, tell/ The paper// My story.”