It's one of the oldest stories: man and woman fall in love: bliss. They fall out: agony. Amazing the nerve of poets who try to tell it one more time anew. Amazing that poetry is up to the task. Bett's slangy, jivey Note Bene Poems: A Journey (Ekstasis, $18.95) is a suite of 71 poems about an intense relationship between the male narrator and "an astonishing woman artist"; that has plenty of anguish and despair to share. The serial poem identifies the couple in relation to the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. What's unique in this sequential narrative is not the melodramatic heart's spasms but the loose and humorous notes that Orph sends down to his Eury girl in Hades. The man is suffering but can't help being sassy at the same time. It's a risky venture, love poetry. Bett pulls it off, just. The last suites suggest an edgy resolution to the lovers' conflict. That, too, is part of the old story: maybe there will be a sequel?

THE PROGRAM

I ain't gonna quit
on lovin' you
so get used
to it hon

get with the pro-
gram, country girl
get with the liner
notes, they say

heartbreak city
is just a stop on
the road back to you


ASSUAGE THE HURT

Whether near or from afar,
says Orpheus, I will
spend the rest of
my nights & days
assuaging
all your vicious hurts

Especially the ones
I carved out of my
own hurt, into
your heart.

$18.95, 85pp, ISBN 1-894800-65-6