At the Edge of the Ancient Inland Sea

Frederick Zydek's "ancient inland sea" is both a prehistoric feature of the Great Plains and the collective unconscious itself. Like Cather, Zydek presents the violently beautiful natural phenomena of Nebraska as possessing the power and inscrutable will of pagan gods. He is equally at home describing the domestic pleasures of farm life or the headier experiences of Nebraska in its fiercest moods, moving easily from the cabin of a combine to the thigh bones of woolly mammoths to the green terror of summer storms. Zydek has become a bolder, more audacious poet in his seventies than ever. This is his most varied and compelling book.—Lance Wilcox, Editor, River Oak Review