ABSTRACT
Ex-presidents probably deserve some degree of automatic deference, so reviewers and reporters have politely tip-toed around the issue of whether Jimmy Carter's new book of poetry, Always a Reckoning, is any good. The bad news is that his poetry is what most of us would call prose. It's just that his prose comes in small doses that run down the page erratically, just like poetry. The good news is that the book is no worse than Reagan's memoirs, and a good deal lighter and cheaper as well-at $18 plus tax, it's only about forty cents per poem, a bargain. People who buy it are essentially buying a presidential souvenir. Instead they will home in on the sentiments, which are high-minded and partly geared, it seems, to catch the judges' eyes. He writes about nature, including a flight of geese that thrilled him when it flew over the White House.
