I read “Mercury,” my first book by rebel poet Ariana Reines, while on a recent trip to New York City. Reines is famous for being fearless and even foul mouthed.  Her poetry is haunting and unsettling, but in a beautiful, straightforward way.  Leafless tree beauty, you could call it.

One thing her poetry is not is romantic. So perhaps it wasn’t the ideal travel companion for a trip taken to celebrate a 5-year wedding anniversary. However, the urbanity of “Mercury” (Fence Books, December 6, 2011) was a perfect match for a thawing April in New York.

Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing other photographs of Ariana Reines’s work, set against scenes from NYC.

Here is the text of the passage in the picture to the right:

On the fortieth anniversary of the assassination

Of Robert Kennedy

I beat you up and you beat me up.

I have bruises, a few, dark and satisfying.