Things My Mother Told Me

Book excerpt: This book is luminous, feisty, heart breaking, and fiercely honest, often all in the space of a single poem. Her voice has the vigour and industrial strength grit of Grace Paley's, and there is genuine wisdom here, an intelligence born of direct experience. These poems are a breath of fresh air in contrast to the fetid self obsession of so much contemporary verse... a real pleasure...a must read for anyone who has ever experienced the deep joys, agonies, and mysteries of the mother, daughter bond.