LOVE MAKES THE AIR LIGHT

Mr. Roseliep has published two other volumes of verse, and apparently is a college English teacher. Several poems are addressed to his students, or are about other poets, or spring from quotations. He is fond of the Haiku (""In my roka blue/cheese glass rue anemones seem all right for you""), and other short forms, which are often academic, sentimental, about friends or children and full of somewhat contrived images. However, there is a handful of good poems. In boyhood recollections, or impersonal subjects, the short lines become simple, telling, and free of mannerisms; and in the few poems in which the poet gives himself room enough, he can create a moving, rich atmosphere. It seems curious that he should have chosen to concentrate on what appears to be the least of his talents.