Author Description

An aura of presentiment hovers over Rooks: military escalation in Vietnam, political assassinations, burning cities, the larger social conflagration about to engulf America. The imagery of these poems is full of shit-on-a-shingle, grenade throws, latrines, swagger sticks, but there are also "golden-yellow / daisy faces / crushed in the imprints / of tank treads." Fagiani's language, sometimes gritty and humorous, is always energized and passionate. He suspends his poems often in midair, shocking them into silence. --Rain Mountain Press.