Frances Driscoll, Author of The Rape Poems

"Powerful. Sad. Touching. Sad. Inspiring. Sad. What a gift she has." -- Nikki Giovanni

"These are stunning poems, in every sense of the word. Tracing the circuitous and torturous paths of memory, Frances Driscoll fearlessly looks back on, and into, rape. Her triumph is that she refuses to trivialize through a mode of confessionalism. Instead, these are poems that are lush with a common, familiar, evocative language that cuts through the surface detritus of our lives, the 'pastel drugs' of therapy, the police reports, the 'cheap filler' of the national wire. What she ultimately reveals are the beauty and terror of what she hesitantly calls 'real life.' These are poems of great courage. And if these are poems of terror, they are also poems of beauty, as Frances Driscoll takes us to a place finally colored by the 'lemon-green of very young leaves.'" -- Gillian Conoley