Old Masters, Neglected Masters, Non-Masters, and Gems
For Dust Thou Art by Timothy Liu Southern Illinois University Press, 2005. $14.95 No bland heterosexist suburban poems of backyard sparrows here, Timothy Liuâs latest book, For Dust Thou Art, offers a smorgasbord of impudent isms: onanism, terrorism, âjism,â and solipsism. Titillating perhaps, but stick to the salad bar. The bookâs title from Genesis 3:19 misleadingly window dresses a store of randy words, from âgood head easier to get than a vintage Merlotâ from the first section of the book to âlinen falling off our laps as boytoys batheâ from the last section of the book. They sandwich some unsurprising poems in the middle that fetishize 9/11ââA firemanâs boot / exhumed at lastâstrange trophy / from rubble still too hot to touchâ or âEvery possible pleasure to be indulged for the world was at an end.â The middle sectionâs mediocrity begs the question: what of the failure of any poet so far to achieve a âWastelandâ from 9/11? While these poems may stimulate, they fail to surprise, much less catalyze new understanding of people and …