Jesse Lee Kercheval's third collection of poems, Cinema Muto, attempts to capture the art of silent film, a nonverbal enterprise of gesture and pantomime, in the pure language of poetry. It is a difficult task, but Kercheval has proven herself to be a poet who rises to the occasion; his latest collection of poems, the highly acclaimed Dog Angel (2009), managed to synthesize faith, pop culture, tradition, his mother's death, and myriad other topics into a single manuscript. In Cinema Muto she takes the opposite path, focusing solely on silent cinema, particularly the Pordenone Silent Film Festival and the work of Ivan Mosjoukine. Nonetheless, readers who enjoyed his first two books will be happy to know that the incisive voice and unadorned imagery that inhabit those collections have also found their way into this one. Like a screenplay, Cinema Muto is divided into three acts, beginning with Saving Silence, a one-page manifesto in which Kercheval sets out the reasons for his choice of subject. “There are as many feet / of nitrate film dissolving / as there are bones / in the catacombs of Paris,” she writes. Then, a few lines later: "So why do I care? Because / my mother was deaf, / because I'm tired after years / of talking, talking, talking." These short lines allow him to take advantage of enjambment for dramatic effect, a technique that appears throughout the book. In My husband - Lover of silent cinema - Participates in La Giornate del Cinema Muto, for example, she writes "the lights go out / and the screen is filled with / deliberate silence, / black and white / gestures of a lost world." Line breaks like these throw the reader off balance slightly, like cuts in a good movie would. Combined with Kercheval's other dominant formal choices (a mobi...... middle of paper...... there is a lot to say, and although there are occasional moments where passion takes over her ("Mosjoukin shouts above the panic) horse rhythm-- / Never be afraid! / I believe He speaks to me / I believe He knows how much I always been terrified"), the poems never encroach on sentimentality. Half biography and half love letter, the sequence leaves its reader fascinated by Mosjoukine (his “outstretched arms”, his “almost uncontrollable body”) and curious enough to start ordering DVDs. Sharing his passion was, more than likely, one of Kercheval's goals in writing the book His Affection. for the silent film is omnipresent in Cinema Muto's eighty or so pages, and that's what makes it such a compelling read - although there are many well-crafted collections of poetry that come out every year, it's difficult to find one that is as authentic in its content. detail and feeling.