Fire in the Mind: Poems New and Selected

FIRE IN THE MIND crowns the lifetime career of a poet whom Claude Wilkinson calls "one of this country's finest poets." This volume presents selections from Brosman's debut collection, WATERING (1972) through METATES AND OTHER POEMS (2025) and new and uncollected work. The range of topics, mastery of form, and fidelity to what Wilkinson terms "her traditionalist aesthetic" are visible throughout. While often personal, the work also sketches countless friends and strangers as well as historical figures. Romantic sweep and broad strokes alternate with close focus, a classical bent. Many poems are centered on fate. The geographic scope includes Spain, the English Channel, and the American South and Southwest. Nature occupies a major place, appreciated for itself but always in the human light of sensation and intellection. The iambic rhythm is felt everywhere, whatever the line and stanza forms--crafted, controlled free verse, blank verse, or traditional rhymed, metered lines.