Mercy

In these poems, Peirce attempts to invoke the numinous mystery present in everyday life, but her language is vague and etherealized. Delicate, finely drawn observations of insects, flowers, and trees too often give way to abstract, emotive passages that are more narcissistic than illuminating: "From their points of adherence/ to these wide curved tips, these pansy blooms seem,/ even in flatness, to have arrived by unfolding/ into all that feeds and harms them." Peirce has considerable technical proficiency and a well-defined subject matter, but for all their formal accomplishments, these poems lack texture and resonance. As she rightly observes, "the distance/ is difficult, from the rendered/ to the true." By straining for profundity, she allows a righteous solemnity to overwhelm her initial responses to the delight and wonder in the world around her. For comprehensive poetry collections.
- Christine Stenstrom, New York Law School Library