Invasions

In his second collection of poems, Adam Kirsch examines the world we live in now, a world in which the dangers of history have invaded the pleasures of private life. His connected poems use traditional forms to create a free, contemporary music amidst the omens of the post-September 11 world. Mr. Kirsch is at home with all the strange juxtapositions of our culture: he can celebrate the paradisal sighs of Jane Birkin and still hear the angelic harmonies of Handel's Messiah; he can observe military jets trailing stripes of smoke and find the quiet of a synagogue in Queens. Invasions is a moving and highly personal collection, Mr. Kirsch's exploration of what he calls, with fear and hope, the magically real.