These quiet, definite poems seem to be about familiar things: country weather and household furniture and a kitchen garden facing south. But the dailyness is an illusion and the poems end up surprising us with their danger and conviction, as much as their assured lyric cadences. Ted Mc Carthy’s world is eloquent and off-balance. It doesn’t so much invite as pull the reader in. After that, the best of these poems have the power to persuade us to stay