by Gillian Steinberg
In her most recent collection, My Kafka Century (Action, $12.00), Arielle Greenberg‘s greatest poetic gift is her subtlety. She’s so subtle that you may not realize what she’s said until quite a while later, after you’ve had a chance to more fully digest her words. In fact, reading a Greenberg poem is not so different from eating gourmet cuisine; at first, her writing elicits a smile, and only later does one sense the depth of flavors and textures behind the first impression, with their satisfying and lingering aftertaste.