ANCIENT VOICES

Hovey follows up Arachne Speaks (2001) with nearly two dozen equally strong, expressionistic poems, introducing Olympians and other immortals either in their own voices, or through the eyes of Ganymede, their once-mortal cupbearer. The poet uses a variety of forms and tones, from Hephaestus’s proud, bitter account of how his father Zeus lamed him, to Aphrodite’s snippy take on the Venus de Milo—“She is beautiful, but cold: / Chipped, stained, / broken / old, / while I still have my youthful charms— / not to mention, both my arms,” or Ganymede’s weary, “When night falls on Olympus, / my spirit’s free to roam / above the moonlit treetops / far away—home.” In witty, Art Deco illustrations, Kimber casts the Muses as a gospel choir, sends Ares thundering past on a motorcycle, and dresses the monumentally proportioned Zeus in a short-pants “King and I” costume. Despite long endnotes, readers already familiar with the Greek and Roman pantheons will be in the best position to by moved, amused, and captivated by this gallery of powerful figures expressing powerful, but also very human, feelings. (Poetry. 12+)