Antebellum Dream Book. (poetry reviews).

Antebellum Dream Book by Elizabeth Alexander Graywolf Press, October 2001, $14.00 ISBN 1-555-97354-X

In her third book of poetry, Elizabeth Alexander creates an allegorical journey through race, gender and motherhood. For the most part, she seamlessly negotiates these weighty concerns. Most engaging are the postpartum dream poems in the middle section of the book, where Alexander is, by turns, erotic, poignant and delightfully outrageous. In "Nat King Cole on the Amalfi Drive," she dreams of doing "something lowdown and dirty" with the romantic crooner: "fried liver and onions/put your hands on your hips and let your diction slip." She reminds us that motherhood nurtures sexuality--so forget about any assumptions you may have had to contrary.

Also impressive is Alexander's ability to sustain interest throughout longer, serial poems such as "Fugue," "The Toni Morrison Dreams" and "Narrative: Ali." The latter, a vision of the life and times of the heavyweight champion, captures the indomitable voice of the man and the legend. Alexander is well known for her dramatic persona poems (notably the accomplished title poem from her first collection, Venus Hottentot, and the affecting "Henry Box Brown" from The Body of Life), so readers should be accustomed to her penchant for historical subject matter. The surprise with "Ali" comes from Alexander's courage to speak in the voice of a still-alive cultural icon, as well as her success in presenting a convincing note of The Champ's emotional self-examination.

In taking such risks, Alexander has written a collection of startling and provocative verse, one that takes the reader "walking/into a light both brilliant and unseen"

Honoree Fanonne Jeffers is the author of The Gospel of Barbecue.