Getting Used To The Dark: 26 Night Poems

Swanson debuts with a brief but consistently high-quality gathering of unrhymed observations and meditations about sleep, dreams, night, nature, family, and other topics. The language is simple but sonorous (""Where is it going, the train on the bridge?/And the wail of the whistle?"") and displays a fondness for unexpected metaphor--night is a running girl, for example--plus an ability to create whole stories in a few lines. ""Karla's Worries"" keep her awake, while another child's dark mood changes as he helps his grandmother make french toast (""Nick and the Stale Bread""); ""Joanie Ice-skating After Dark"" finds a world of adventure, as does ""Ben Under The Blanket."" Catalanotto's shadowy, soft-edged pictures are all details of a wreath-shaped pencil dreamscape reproduced at the end. A promising collection, evocatively illustrated.