Sleeping with the Moon: (Illinois Poetry Series)

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"

Table of Contents:
CoverTitleCopyrightContentsPART IPillow BookMother LoveCatching GarI Speak to the Girl Some Dim Boy LovesAnniversaryMost WantedSleeping with the MoonCodex: FrostbiteCodex: DiagnosisDrawing a Line in the SandChilblainsBlues for SpringIn Praise of Older WomenPART IIYou and Me and Veronica LakeFirst Date after FiftyThe Company She KeepsLove LettersBoys Will BeLustBlinded by the MoonRemarks Beneath the Visiting MoonTango MoonHeartbreak Moon on the Strait of Juan de FucaIn the Blind Eye of Love's Shiny MoonThe Year I Found Myself Under Two Blue MoonsThe Vixen Speaks to the Last Full Moon of the CenturyPART IIISome Are Dead and Some Are LivingDutyElectraBad Slam BroadwayTeaching G.I.s to DanceWhat I Wish for when I Bother to Wish at AllPhotolinen: La Push BeachHeartache: Things to Watch forBlues for the Slimes HouseLight Reflecting Glass in the Evelyn RoomTelling LiesReckless DivasTravelling MoonBallad for the Blue Moon TavernPART IVMae West Chats It Up with Bessie SmithWhat Happened to the RabbitThe Moon in the Dragon's MouthWonder WomanFairy TalesThe PrincessUnlearning the Brothers GrimmEartha Takes the Old Woman Shopping for Red ShoesSong of the Red KimonoLast Dance for the Copper Room Hot Springs BandVienna LayoverMoon Over Turtle IslandMoon Over MarakeshLoving this EarthNotesBack cover

About the Author :
Colleen J. McElroy is a professor emerita of English and creative writing at the University of Washington, Seattle, and the author of several poetry collections, including Traveling Music.      

Review :
"She will happily give the MFAs a headache with her unfashionably clear statements and heartbroken admissions and the bold planting, in almost every poem, of the moon, which she annexes to her purposes, only sometimes romantic."--PoetryFoundation.org