The Blessing of Dark Water
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
"These poems are infused with contradiction: discovery and pain, blood and healing. Ultimately, The Blessing of Dark Water is wrenching in its investigation of the artistic urge as tempered by the transformative power of suffering."—Amy Quan Barry
Lyons's debut, The Blessing of Dark Water, highlights the exquisite pain and terrible happiness of mental illness by invoking the voice and perspective of American artist, Walter Inglis Anderson, who struggled with bipolar depression and psychotic episodes. These poems grapple with the suffering and secrecy of "invisible" illness, and the aching struggle for a simple human connection within the complexities.
"How All Things are Managed"
They call it a falling into death.
Two dogs are shot into my vein.
Three-second breath then
the shake and jerk.
One dog starves and the other
feeds on its body.
Remember: thou art dust.
If I am lucky, there is only the darkness,
an explosion.
Perhaps a fracture,
a concussion,
a dislocation.
Flecks of blood.
If the illness in your brain is brutal,
be brutal back.
Elizabeth Lyons holds an MFA from Purdue University and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Houston. Her poems have appeared in Tin House, Indiana Review, New South, and Salt Hill. A recipient of fellowships and prizes from the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, Vermont Studio Center, the I-Park Foundation, and the Academy of American Poets, she lives in Houston, TX.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lyons grapples with the nature of mental illness in her moving debut collection, switching between her personal perspective and that of Walter Inglis Anderson, an American painter who is believed to have had a form of schizoaffective disorder. The work touches upon a number of themes, including alienation, genetic predestination, the power of imagination, madness and artistic enlightenment, and the relationship between perception and reality. Lyons's observational acuity, straightforward syntax, and thorough narratives keep readers oriented while traversing the sensuous "dark water" of mental illness. Lyons explains the cognitive dissonance in feeling unstable yet confident in one's identity: "I'm only Elizabeth when I'm in trouble." She gives a voice to Anderson's wife, who endured physical abuse due to Anderson's delusions. "I am made of potter's clay/ so when you put your hand to my throat you are really// molding me," Lyons writes. Over the course of the book, Lyons also reflects on the feigned humanity of mental hospitals, describes a drug no longer used that caused bone-fracturing epileptic convulsions, and reflects on the outwardly compassionate gesture of hosting asylum balls: "Even the crazy look sane given tempo." As an intriguing touch, she includes quotes from Anderson, his doctors, and his wife to flesh out his presence. Lyon's humble and empathetic poems are wrought with tangible emotion.
