The poems in amphora seize on the miraculous moments contained in life and language, interrogating them with scepticism on the one hand, celebrating them with a comic sense of wonder on the other. The collections focus ranges from the magical exploits of saints recalled from the poets Catholic childhood, to her variations on the Zen koan, to the accidental out of the blue poems in the final sequence. Burns draws attitudes which define a way of living gladness, openness, curiosity, acceptance, and above all sensual delight, in the abundance of the worlds offerings, and in the possibilities of language: may the polysemic flower bloom.
