Dragon in my Purse

<p>Betsy Littrell's <em>Dragon in my Purse</em> weaves into gold the clutter of contemporary American life the ambiguities of family the messiness of homes animated by actual people living actual lives. Littrell's poems summon an achingly sensual picture of motherhood give glimpses-almost confessional at times-into the life of a woman navigating her desires and their cultural and biological roots. The rehearsal of imagined play with a daughter who never was ends with a body crumpled on the floor with blood and flowers and the scent of baby powder. Sensitive to the magic of the quotidian the resonances of little moments too often neglected in the rush of our contemporary moment Littrell testifies to the power of poetic knowledge and its ability to animate the world to give form to chaos to create life-or a life-in only twenty-two poems.</p><p><strong>-Joseph T. Thomas Jr. </strong>Professor of English & Comparative Literature at San Diego State University and author of <em>Poetry's Playground: The Culture of Contemporary American Children's Poetry</em> (Wayne State UP 2007) & <em>Strong Measures</em> (Make Now 2007)</p><p><br></p><p>In pastel tones Betsy Littrell captures the clarity and urgency of care in poems softly wrought and beautifully folded. With meticulous imagery and a sensorium embedded in floral wood and crepuscular realms the poems in this collection move us gently beyond individual self to collective need. From the memory center to the washing wool to the beloved freckled face these heartfelt songs call us to recall how the lone pine smells like an entire forest how deeply the forest depends on the single tree. </p><p><strong>-S$</strong> <em>Penn Sound 1913 Leave Your Body Behind The Yesterday Project Poetry Foundation</em></p><p><br></p>