THE PLAY OF THE RAINBOW

This collection of thirty-seven poems by an Englishman uses a technique of subdued surrealism to achieve its creative ""Alter and Invent"". . . ""and I/ in the stone and rock,/ and floating sky,/ have/ an ideal,/ the structure that we make/ with love."" In achieving the ideal, the author forces his rhythm into jagged contrivances and broken sounds that finally isolate the significant word, reordered into a new meaning. Thus Mackmin often succeeds in creating new structures, intense inter-lockings of thought and technique, as in the last lines of ""My Cold Bracelet"" where communication will break the fragile understanding ""if my fingers/ touch/ your paler face."" The poet delights in precision and he forces the reader through unnatural and uncertain punctuation into keeping his pace: ""we think they're/ settling, down./ rather, well."" But his instinct is sure and it is rare that the device does not yield an extra pliancy to the poem. The diversity extends to theme as well, lending a subterranean seriousness to the Rainbow lights of loving, life, work and nature. Word perfect.