Poetry. In Greg Purcell's tour de force, THE FUNDAMENTS, a nameless, intrepid 'he' morphs into a panoply of curious personae -- becoming everything from a cowboy, a dilettante, Gilgamesh, Emily Dickinson, Imagism, a hand-bag, and more. His playful role-playing encompasses not only people, but also objects, movements, and ideas. It is a thoroughly post-Whitman song that questions, as much as it celebrates, the notion of self. These poems are like blunt objects--'lilting heavy'--but with something elusive remaining. 'In the weather, in the box/ In the standpipes alone./ In the box.// A feather.'--Elaine Equi