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Poetry. Beloved Sacramento poet Traci Gourdine has been a mainstay of the Northern California poetry scene for years. RINGING IN THE WILD is her debut full-length collection, long in coming. Poems, like screenplays, lyricize. Words and pictures thread and needle us. Consider 'tired bras, proletariat panties / sleek cool satins / delicate lace made of thin air / all worth a month's salary / all for him' - and feel the weave of Traci Gourdine's spell. Consider 'steamy nights when all goes still' and young women who watch 'familiar men / light and gather noisily // crows on wires / men on front stoops' - and the pictures that her nudging, teasing poems almost begin complete. Still, mystery gathers. Consider 'They'll couple up with sudden dates / outside movie houses / karate films, stale popcorn / young girls popping gum, snapping Juicy Fruit in time / with the crisp click of thin heeled shoes' - and the reinforced heart of old-time heterosexual love and social need beats on. Gourdine's vivid poem-story reveries lay bare love-secrets we, all of us, covet and share.--Al Young