<DIV><p>"In lines that remind me of the way William Carlos Williams insisted that only the imagination gives us access to reality, Lasky's poems evoke a practice of living, as bloody and awful and lovely as living can ever be."?Julia Bloch, <I>Bitch</I></p><p>"The beautiful thing about Lasky, in all her work, but particularly here, is her ability to create that same sense of earnestness, the sense that she is telling you a secret."?InDigest Magazine, InDigest Picks</p><p>Go, brave and gentle reader, with Dorothea Lasky to the "purple motel / where the bird lives." Go with her, as you have willingly gone down the dark passages before, with her bare-faced poems for guidance. <I>Thunderbird</I>'s controlled rage plunges into the black interior armed with nothing but guts and Lasky's own fiery heart to light the way.</p><p><I>Baby of air<BR>You rose into the mystical<BR>Side of things<BR>You could no longer live with us<BR>We put you in a little home<BR>Where they shut and locked the door<BR>And at night<BR>You blew out<BR>And went wandering . . . </I></p><p><B>Dorothea Lasky</B> is also the author of <I>Black Life</I> and <I>AWE</I>, both from Wave Books. She lives in New York.</p></DIV>