Bonfire of the Verities

Res ipsa loquitor—the thing speaks for itself—as the lawyers say. But does it? Not in Michael Lieberman’s new book of poems, Bonfire of the Verities. What speaks here is doubt and the commitment to cast aside the apparent truths we all accumulate. Those verities are what are tossed onto Lieberman's bonfire:

It is here I heap
the platitudes
I cannot keep.

He grounds his struggle precisely:

The coordinates of the country of doubt
are 29º, 45’ N / 95º, 21’ W,

which are those of Houston, his adopted ...