The Forest Of Wild Hands

In these moving poems Judy Michaels illuminates an intense period of fiveyears in her life against a backdrop that celebrates her young students andenduring mar... » 

In these moving poems Judy Michaels illuminates an intense period of fiveyears in her life against a backdrop that celebrates her young students andenduring marriage and the power of music and mountains she writes about thesudden loss of her mother to cancer her fathers ensuing depression andalcoholism and her own experience with ovarian cancer.Michaelss witty passionate style and wide range of subject matter set hercollection above raw confessionalism as the title of one poem asserts YouDont Need Another Cancer Poem. With its fresh look at alltoofamiliarsituations the narrative establishes a spirit of celebration and independencethat accounts for the poets resilience in the face of loss. She tells us aboutcheeserolling contests in England what its like to have a mother withemeraldchocolatestreak eyes and how to teach jumping at a teachersconvention. One poem delineates the anatomy and metaphysics of viola jokes.Another implies that French kissing is just as good at 54 as at 17.Favorite poets drift through the book too Jane Kenyon Akhmatova andTsvetayeva Bishop and Rukeyser Basho Shikibu and Rumi. And when near theend Michaels envisions putting her mother on the Brooklyn ferry a tactlessbut reassuring Walt Whitman is on board. «