Books Noted
Cedar Sigo, Stranger in Town

City Lights, 2010

The second book by Cedar Sigo has a lyric energy that fervently pursues what Joanne Kyger recognizes as "urban mysticism." Queer identity, love, and city landscapes serve as themes of the collection, and Sigo—with wit and energy—pays homage to heroes Jack Spicer, John Wieners, and Arthur Rimbaud. The "I" in these poems is direct, youthful, and at times ecstatic. From "Speedway":

                                  I'm
Sewing up the kinks in this film, I'm Trying to! I'm trying to burn a light Between, There's a light and I cable my voice on it but it rips when I trace Anything! WORKS ON PAPER, THE SHIP OF DEATH "Oh build it!"

Though the aforementioned energy radiates throughout the collection, the poems' power often comes from the suggestion of what is in the dark: shadows, secrets, closets, and ghosts. Sigo writes, in "Daybreak Star,"

This is my test of the ink, the privacy in composition prized.