Bully Pulpit

Stately and assured, Kim Bridgford triumphs over private, public, mythic and literary bullies in her newest volume, Bully Pulpit, a sustained book of poems that ranges wide and deep, shining a searchlight on the world of threats. Her crisp meters and deft turns of phrase take on "mobbing" to "bullycides," intelligently moving us from examples of survivor-figures (like Rosa Parks) to literary victims (like Desdemona) and on to film icons, too. The growl of Norma Desmond bursts forth, and the electric and charming voices of the Triplets of Belleville. Are these the subjects of poetry? You bet they are, especially in Bridgford's valiant hands. Molly Peacock