SOMETHING PERMANENT

Classic photos taken under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration ``to document the country during the Great Depression'' are matched with succinct poems that awaken the imagination to real lives behind b&w images that, more often than not, are unpeopled. ``And when the children would come in/from working the fields,/their bellies aching with hunger,'' begins ``Utensils,'' which faces a spare photo of a few forks and spoons hung on a rough wall. Two gaunt men are hanging around a bleak building: ``So what are you gonna do/while you're waiting for/a little work,/'cept...swap some stories./Hell, story's the only thing that's free in this world.'' Or a window box brims with life: ``And he thought that if he could/just get those plants up...he might be able/to smile at his kids,/make love to his wife....'' Suggesting whole stories but never insisting, Rylant's lean, evocative verse opens windows of meaning into these quietly eloquent scenes. Across the decades, a fine collaboration. (Poetry. 10+)