BURIED ALIVE
The Elements of Love
by Ralph Fletcher & illustrated by Andrew Moore
A collection of poems about young love and all its complications, from cruelty to worship, from the author of Fig Pudding (1995). Over a cycle of poems, a number of stories unfold, of forbidden affection, cold calculation, suspicion (``hairs black, red and blond:/yours/mine/someone else's''), separation, disappointment, longing, and unlikely love. Pumpkins planted in the first bloom of a now-failed relationship refuse to wither on the vine and yield jack-o'-lanterns—``Not one face looked like yours.'' A likable tough guy falls for a delicate beauty and disarms her father with car talk. A lonely gay girl, her yearbook holding no signatures, teeters on the brink of love. There's a Mrs. Robinsonstyle mom (``. . . tanned and amazingly fit/from advanced aerobics classes''), a love poem that gets burned up by a girl's angry father, and love letters that keep arriving by mail after the love has been canceled in a phone call. Fletcher has written articulate, intense poems that treat the subject of love with dignity and compassion. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Poetry. 11-15)