Hurricane in a Bad Mood

In her fifth book of poetry, Sue Owen, who lived and taught in Louisiana for more than thirty years, continues to offer poems rich with her provocative dark humor. Here she explores her familiar themes of fear, danger, and death, but with a new emphasis on the threat of global warming and a future of possible doom. Her vivid curiosity, displayed in the examination of language, proverbial sayings, and the personification of inanimate objects, extends to nature's fury, as in the title poem "Hurricane in a Bad Mood." In addition, she depicts the many victims of oil spills in "When Pelicans Cannot Fly" and "The Gulf Turns into Tears." As in her earlier books, one of which won a national competition, the poems range in tone from the playful to the prophetic, often containing flashes of wit, as in "Last Nail in the Coffin" and "Even the Dead Do It." Whether ethereal or earthy, these poems encourage the reader to remain aware of our inevitable fate, but also to confront without despair the environmental challenges of our difficult century.