Jerusalem of Grass

Axelrod’s clarity of language shines in Jerusalem of Grass. Words hit notes high and sharp, and give us enough, more than enough, in their directness and simplicity. Landscape is always part of these poems, as are the sentiments of things missed, longed for, or needed. Paul Nelson writes, “Axelrod does not use Nature aesthetically to color language or event or situation, or for the state of human discourse, but as the now weird backdrop against which everything human still matters or does not, for him.