Pitch Lake includes traditional lyric poems, shaped poems, erasures, prose poems, a ‘Closet Drama in Five Scenes’, even a short story. Rather than feeling forced, the dazzling array of forms, voices and styles is exciting, making the reader constantly engaged, unsure of what is to come. The middle section entitled ‘Black Box’, in which Bagoo writes most bravely about being gay in the face of intolerance, is original, electric and deeply moving.
