SOURCE: "The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems," in The New York Times Book Review, December 12, 1971, pp. 17-18.

Here, Zweig compares earlier collections of Wakoski's poetry with The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems.

When Inside the Blood Factory was published in 1968, it was clear that in the poetry of Diane Wakoski a new sort of energy had been tapped. A fierce impulse toward confession and autobiography moved through her poems, but it took unexpected detours into an imagery of elusive beasts, colors and bizarre precious stones. The "me" she confessed to was not contained by situations; it was not an object of complaint. Although her poems were stirred by angers and fears, they did not include gestures toward suicide, the madhouse or the pill bottle. Instead, she confessed to the hippogriff in her soul, which carried her like an exulting spirit among the men who loved her, or betrayed her. The blend of...