POEMS IN BLACK AND WHITE

Miller pairs lovely images with monotypes in different hues, including inky black and cool white. Sometimes the titular theme examines the colors directly, celebrating in “First Steps” a new baby’s inked footprints and in the clever “Dog-eyed,” both a canine’s black-and-white eyesight and his Border Collie coat, which, “among his doggy friends / is just as grand as / Irish Setter red.” Other poems tease out the theme more obliquely: “Dandelion Dreams” contrasts the plant’s tenacious root with “her head . . . filled with / winged seeds—her fluffy cloud-white dreams. . . . ” Short lines beautifully integrate assonance and near rhyme in unselfconscious verse that plumbs the natural world and occasionally reflects on a child’s familial connections. Miller’s often exquisite exploitation of the monotype medium (as in illustrations for “King Crow” and “Comet”) falls short in pictures for “Dad’s Closet” and “Almost Perfect,” wherein a doctor’s coat, stethoscope and buttoned shirt, flatly depicted, lack the lush nuance found elsewhere. Worthwhile overall, with glimmers of brilliance; an artist to watch. (note on illustrations) (Poetry. 6-12)