Antonia Clark

Dance Craze Antonia Clark

Dance Craze is a diverse collection of poems, full of mischief and whimsy and ranging from irreverent to fanciful to quirky. "I was a girl with a fondness for fiction," the narrator tells us, "eager and willing to suspend disbelief." And later, "I was verbal and fertile. I skipped and skirted and circled. Put my faith in cut and run." These poems tell of romantic foibles and felicities, as well as a dead ex-husband who shows up at the door wanting to party. The narrator, who is "capable of staggering languor," says, "I'm a little beyond the bend of the river, a little up the road from put together." But she's also able to sing an ode to missteps and faux pas, and finally, to listen to her heart "like a golden oldie."