Footnotes To Algebra
by Eileen R. Tabios.
BlazeVox Books, 2009.

An inventive, form-stretching delight, this is “yet another” collection from a poet who has found her voice repeatedly, but does not seem to repeat herself. Eileen Tabios never bores, though she’s managed to publish more than Philip Levine, or William Stafford, who found their voices as well, but continued to issue weaker and weaker impressions across a smaller number of volumes.

Case in point: The “Chant for Kari” in which Tabios explains her method of translating a Kari Edwards poem (via genderless number) into an IIokano chant. Tabios does Cage doing Oulipo, and she does it convincingly.

If Tabios is indeed a force of nature (as I’ve posited elsewhere), she appears to be a force for good: so much of her work appears to spring from love, friendship, admiration. The Triptych For Philip–a bouquet of sorts for Philip Lamantia,–is a great example of this, and dedications to Elaine Equi, Arthur Sze, and others abound throughout the book.

In short, far from being a volume of tailings, or chips and spalls swept up from the workshop floor, there are some challenging, and at the very least, interesting poems in these pages that belie the usual connotations of an “uncollected” collection.