The most salient feature of Jampole's poetry is his talent for finding unique ways to make the reader think, and think hard. One of my favorites, "Imaginary Landscape with 29 Birds (After Audubon)" is riddle-like —cryptic descriptions of the habits and appearances of various birds are followed by the name of the species. In "Ghost", American foreign policy is depicted quite literally as a nightmare, while "Variation on a Ballad" is a subtle but very effective condemnation of Americans' short attention span and obsession with pop culture. There are homages—"Dot and Sylvia" recalls the life and death of Sylvia Plath, while "Thomas Alfred Thinks about His Princesses" self-consciously recalls T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (though the middle-aged protagonists of the two poems have different problems with women—Mr. Alfred allows himself to be manipulated by them, while Mr. Prufrock is terrified to approach them). There are also plenty of semi-obscure references apt to make a reader feel a bit smug if she or he catches them— the syllable structure of "Pascal's Triangle" is based on the pyramid of numbers for which the poem is named, while "The Sixth Dream of Gilgamesh" recalls the Sumerian epic. But don't be afraid that you won't pick up on everything—many of the references are explained in the helpful endnotes.