NATIVE DANCER by Sara Miles (Curbstone, 321...

NATIVE DANCER by Sara Miles (Curbstone, 321 Jackson St., Willimantic, Conn. 06226: $5). Sara Miles is a poet whose strong political persuasions provide heat and good purpose in occasional poems engaged with causes in Nicaragua, Lebanon, or the front lines of urban America: “This is / particular America / where we ride on other people’s labor / other people’s history: patria libre / when this indigenous sky grows / mountains real as anywhere; how do you say / venceremos / in West Shokan?” (“West Shokan, New York”). Miles’ best poems, however, address “inside” histories. They rise to a very articulate emotional discourse. “Progressive Jazz” is a beautiful comment on age and ages--quoting the ‘60s hit “Stop in the Name of Love” by the Supremes as a soft nostalgic chord against a hard-edged “progressive” present in which “I go home alone / mop the floor / and try to figure out a correct line on monogamy / before my baby walks in with someone new / and I have to shake her hand. // The problem with women is someone / always decides to be honest. / The problem with me is no one / can get round to telling me how absolutely / stunning I am first thing in the morning / or suggesting a little something / like forever in a diamond ring / and no one will tell me nearly enough / bourgeois backwards sexy lies.”