The Desecration of Doves, By Arlene Ang. New York:iUniverse, 2005. $9.95. 978-0-595-36462-6

Arlene Ang's collection of poems in Desecration of Doves is something akin to a good beach-book. Like those books that we've all brought to the shore (yes, even literary types like brain candy), Ms. Ang's compilation is a book one can read in one go, or thumb through here and there with equally pleasing results.

There is enough variety of poetic styles, forms and subjects to allow a reader to enter and exit the collection at will, never feeling as if a linear, start-to-finish progression is necessary for a clear understanding of both the individual poems or of the collection as a whole. Though it is satisfying to saturate oneself in the unabashedly luscious language and rhythm of the poetry, each poem is intense enough in its own right to allow for the more measured portion.

Simply examining the table of contents will give a reader an idea of this somewhat non-sequiteur approach to collecting poems. One begins with a sensual, even erotic poem entitled "Skinny Dipping" in which we, the readers are lusciously allowed to be "Licked by the moon/ which crisps the water silver/ so that frogs gargle love songs". From there, the collection moves to a more didactic but still melodic (pardon the pun) and lyrical poem in which the speaker ruminates on lost love called "First Debussy, Then Gershwin". This progression from the traditionally sensuous to the frankly realistic and back is perhaps what holds this collection of poems together more than an overarching narrative or theme. This is also what makes the collection so accessible. It does not require hours of careful concentration to suss meaning from the lines. Instead, we are able to surf lightly from poem to poem, lay quietly on our own sandy shores, and then go back for more!

Through a series of vignettes, character sketches, memories and imagined conversations, Ms. Ang works carefully in the liminal space between imagination, the corporeal, and the mundane. This is a somewhat precarious place to be, and not all of our experiences are wholly palatable. For instance, in "First Debussy, Then Gershwin", the memory of a past lover, "his hands moving over mine/ to infuse the skin with impulsive rhythm" leads inexorably to the current reality of the speaker in which an elderly or infirm mother is being given a bath. The combination between the sexual and the sentimental is somewhat unnerving, but deftly charges an often unspoken connection between the two. Like being tumbled by a wave, the experience is disconcerting, but once we find out bearings, the desire to experience it again is nearly impossible to deny.

Desecration of Doves is a collection of poems that challenges readers to do their own balancing act between what we find acceptable and what provokes us, shocks us or otherwise forces us to confront ourselves in each imagined conversation, each unearthed memory, each iteration of love and loss put forth on the page. Ultimately, we are asked to commit our own desecrations, and in doing so, find freedom from ourselves, if only for a brief ride back to shore.