Sleeping with the Moon

PEN Oakland National Literary Award, 2008

Colleen J. McElroy’s poetry shoots for the moon, and takes it in, too, in one way after another. The collection’s award-winning poems animate women’s experiences of sex, shopping, and dancing, while offering telling insight into the struggles and silver lining of lust, love, illness, and aging. Rich with vivid imagery and candid storytelling, Sleeping with the Moon takes readers on moonlit adventures under the night sky, through the barroom’s smoky haze, and under the covers. ...Beware: such delicate

sights have driven more than one woman to despair

instead she watched him breathe-- relishing

for a moment that secret space where night

grows soft and the moon’s detumescence forgives--

and where if this jeweled light holds they might

strip themselves of years if only for one night

--from “In Praise of Older Women”