In these visceral poems, Diane Kerr reckons with dark trauma. Retracing memories from girlhood that she once felt compelled to keep secret, perspectives shift as the lens of adulthood brings the past into sharp clarity. Moments are revealed in layers; we join the poet as she rides through fields on horseback, watches a woman testify on television, and comes to terms with her experiences of sexual abuse. Vivid recollections of emotionally charged minutiae-broken-in cowboy boots, the second button on a blouse, a housecoat patterned with pink begonias-remind us how even the smallest details can be fraught with both nostalgia and pain. Each poem wields power, with resonating narratives of fear and survival reminding us that suffering has no statute of limitations.

Perigee (Wisconsin Poetry Series)

Literature & Fiction

Kerr, Diane

Poetry

University of Wisconsin Press

Butterfly is a book-length single poem divided into three sections, each section containing untitled segments. Although the book is meant to be read in order, Butterfly is not a straight narrative; rather it is a lyric sequence grounded in the narrative circumstance of the deaths of a twin brother and mother. As such, the poem is an elegy, an exploration of grief within the particulars of both the twin dyad and the triad of mother and twins. Like all elegies, Butterfly is as much about the bereaved as the lost beloved, exploring family memories and mysteries of loyalty, conflict, love, and identity within the context of one family member's tragic self-destruction.

Butterfly

Cherry Grove Collections

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Books by Kerr, Diane

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Kerr, Diane. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Perigee (Wisconsin Poetry Series)

Butterfly