Goat in the Snow
Poems Emily Pettit

Emily Pettit has included a number of “how to” poems in her nimble and dazzling first collection, such as: “How To Make No Noise,” and the especially useful “How To Avoid Confronting Most Large Animals.” Her kindness is always ahead of us, anticipating the problems we will or won’t run into, and we always end up in a different, precise place than the one we started out from, as she reassuringly tells us: “You know/ you know you know. It’s all uncertainty/ and your neck. You walk slowly/ in a calm voice.” Goat In The Snow is multicolored, ever-changing, a delight to try to clasp.

—John Ashbery