Tom Lynch

Steve Healey's debut collection of poems, "Earthling," elegantly lives up to its title, a quirky way to address Earth's inhabitants and the dead-on way to sum-up the poet's work. The Minneapolis poet, also associate editor of Conduit magazine, finds subtlety in stand-out phrases, comforting innocence in others and, thankfully, humor when the reader is least expectant. The book moves like a record, weaving in and out of loud, boisterous offenses and devilish-yet-poignant minimalism, like connecting the stars of a constellation with the invisible pen on the tip of your finger. You can see what Healey is chasing--he starts with pitch-perfect simplicity and ends with something else, something generous, a cluster of cream. The opening of "shirts vs. skins": "Worst nightmare: I'm a skin." The end? "We go to a movie together and hold on tight/ We hold these truths to be self-evident." What's in the middle is for you to find.

Steve Healey reads from "Earthling" on February 16 at Danny's Tavern, 1951 West Dickens, (773)489-6457, at 7:30pm. Free.

(2005-02-08)

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