The Border

From sonnet to free verse, from rime to slant rime, Cleatus Rattan's poems gather the past to inspect the future. His efforts to generate emotion transport the reader to vivid views of a family on the edge of new ways of examining the next stage of lives carefully planned for emotional possibilities. In the title poem, which ends this collection, Rattan allows his readers to "Motor through familiar lands/ and see the comfortable/ well developed plans./ Note a warping red gable/ and high cloud-filled unending skies./ Pass through flat lands until you see/ the end--and old state with no guard./ Then turn to home and tell no lies/ about an easy relaxing journey,/ but hold the vision in high regard." Rattan's lyrics wield a powerful musical dictation to the rhythm in the dance from border to border.