"Ellen Watson is an eloquent, passionate poet; tender, wildly inventive, with the wonder of childhood and a grown woman's comic sense. Watson's poetry is the real thing."-Robert Pinsky "I am stupid with awe of Ellen Dor Watson. Reading her work does that to you, makes you a little drunk on the world, a little tipsy and stumble-tongued."-Claiborne Smith, "Austin Chronicle"
Vivid, propulsive, and compelling, these poems map with unflinching attention the unraveling of a marriage and the persistence of longing, the pain of loss and the persistence of pleasure in motherhood and the stuff of everyday life. Whether indulging fantasies of revenge, reveling in a child's kisses, or deconstructing a first date in 25 years.
"First Date In Twenty-Five Years"
"Buttoning my sweater over the huge splotch
of white wine splashed on to neutralize the coin"
"of red dribbled earlier in my nerves, I sit down
across the table from this man for the first time"
"and find I've forgotten how to use a fork.
Returning home, I set the story we might make"
"beside the story I am making, then alternate the two
like fitful sleep positions. To the first I give lots of room"
"and no punctuation; from the second I subtract
destruct, add self. Doze off feeling kissed. Morning"
"proper finds me weeping into bathwater. I must turn
into the one I've been threatening to become, faster."
Poetry. Vivid, propulsive, and compelling, Ellen Dore Watson's THIS SHARPENING maps with unflinching attention the unraveling of a marriage and the persistence of longing, the pain of loss and the persistence of pleasure in motherhood, and the stuff of everyday life--whether indulging fantasies of revenge, reveling in a child's kisses, or deconstructing a first date in 25 years. "Ellen Watson is an eloquent, passionate poet; tender, wildly inventive, with the wonder of childhood and a grown woman's comic sense. Watson's poetry is the real thing"--Robert Pinsky. "I am stupid with awe of Ellen Dore Watson. Reading her work does that to you, makes you a little drunk on the world, a little tipsy and stumble-tongued"--Claiborne Smith.
