BURT HATLEN – NEW POEMS, by Burton Hatlen; Vox Audio, Magdalena, N.M., 2006; CD, $7.

The 11 poems in this CD collection follow up UMaine professor Burt Hatlen’s first CD released by Vox Audio two years ago. These are, as the simple title indicates, mostly new poems, and while the offerings from the first CD, “Burt Hatlen Reads His Poetry,” were also deeply personal, the “New Poems” open further ranges.

Seven of the offerings are addressed directly to friends, family members and other acquaintances, five of them explicitly “letters” (including one to Ezra Pound). They all reflect precisely on events, images and relationships, and while simply stated for the most part, they disclose emotional sensibilities much deeper than most of what we’re used to hearing in this kind of poetry. By this I mean we get honest, unpretentious and truly revealing efforts – toward the end of a lifetime lived in literature – to make sense of the most fundamental human feelings and experiences: love, remorse, friendship, fear of death. The opening poem, “A Letter to Alan Devinish,” is a startling evocation of whole ranges of these feelings, with the explicit, moving theme that “learning to think of death as the poets do is the hardest thing we’ve got to learn.” The straightforward diction and imagery of this poem disclose real psychic complexities that the obscurities of postmodern syntax and grammar can’t even fabricate.

As in Hatlen’s earlier CD, the poems are given in understated but lucid rhythms, which after three or four selections start to become spellbinding, as all good poetry intends. The poems on this CD sound more urgent, in some ways, than the earlier readings, and this is borne out in re-readings of “Mappings” and “A Letter to Ron Miao,” which appeared on the first disc.

This CD represents a development and advancement in Hatlen’s poetry, which he has returned to recently after long, distinguished years as a literary scholar. It is well worth any investment of time and cash, for readers familiar with Hatlen and his work and for others with an interest in the possibilities of poetry to give shape to powerful human feeling. Copies are available by writing to Vox Audio, P.O. Box 594, Magdalena, NM 87825.

BY JACK WILDE

SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

THE LATE LOON, written and illustrated by Dean Bennett; Down East Books, 2006; unpaginated, large-format hardbound, $15.95.

“The Late Loon,” written and illustrated by Dean Bennett, is a touching story about a dog, Jasper, two people, John and Reggie, and a baby loon. Jasper, John and Reggie discover a loon egg that has not hatched yet. They are worried because it is so late in the season to have found an unhatched egg.

They monitor and protect the egg because they want the baby inside to survive. More than a month later, they finally see the baby riding on its mother’s back. This still worries them, however, because it means the loon may not be able to learn to fly in time and migrate with the other loons.

Eventually all the loons leave, and the baby is left alone on the lake. It is still there by the time the lake begins to freeze over. Eventually though, when the ice starts to break up a little bit, the loon tries flying, and succeeds. It flies away over the lake to join its family in the warmer south.

“The Late Loon” is a good book, with a well-thought-out plot and all the appropriate facts about loons. We learn, for example, that loons need a long stretch of water to take off, and that August is very late for an egg to be laid. Younger children will enjoy this book because it is easy to read and straightforward, and the pictures are very clear and well-drawn. They distinctly depict the story line, with Jasper, John and Reggie paddling in their canoe, and Jasper chasing a fox away from the loon egg. The entire story is like this.

Dean Bennett, a retired professor of the University of Maine, lives in Mount Vernon. He has been a Maine Audubon Society Teacher of the Year and has received the Natural Resources Council of Maine’s Environmental Activist Award.

His earlier books include “Finding a Friend in the Forest,” “Everybody Needs a Hideaway” and “The Wilderness from Chamberlain Farm.”

Jack Wilde is a sophomore at Mount View High School. He can be contacted on AOL instant messenger at PntBallAddict09.

BY DALE MCGARRIGLE

OF THE NEWS STAFF

DRAGON’S TEETH, by James A. Hetley, Ace, New York, 2006, 336 pages, paperback, $14.

Many visitors have said that the Maine coast is a magical place. James Hetley thinks so, too, but in a different way.

In “Dragon’s Teeth,” the Bangor fantasy author takes readers back to Stonefort, the poor coastal Maine town with some peculiar residents.

There’s the Morgans, who came from Wales thousands of years before. The current Morgans – Ben, Daniel and their shared son Gary – are master thieves and shape-shifters.

There’s the Haskells, the town’s resident witches, the latest of whom is Alice, also an EMT at the local hospital. Alice’s lover, Kate Rowley, is a town cop and also a fledgling Earth goddess.

Then there’s Caroline, a perpetual grad student and witch in training who’s an offspring of both the Morgans and the Haskells.

In “Dragon’s Teeth,” there’s a malignant presence unveiled in Stonefort, as dead bodies start showing up in places of power.

Alice and the Morgans soon figure out that it’s fallout from their adventures in the series’ first book, “Dragon’s Eye,” and have to decide how to kill an evil that doesn’t want to die.

Hetley’s latest novel has teeth. While it too quickly becomes apparent what’s going on, it’s still satisfying to see how the author resolves an explosive situation.