Time & Other Solvents
A STORY OF HEALING
Poems by Claudia Gary
About the book
Sligo Creek Publishing is proud to present Claudia Gary’s first full-length poetry collection. Gary is a well-known DC area poet and teacher, known for her gentle wit and humor. This collection is a sort of autobiography in verse. Its running themes include her relationship with a mother who suffered from depression (and the after-effect of its treatment), and her overcoming an eating disorder.
It is also an exploration of the sonnet and other poetic forms. Gary is a perfectionist, making every word and syllable serve her art.
An excerpt from her book:
Wrong-Way Driver
Close Call
Returning home at twilight from the store—
your baby safely strapped into her seat,
the main road not yet widened into four,
then six lanes—in your northbound path you meet
two headlights. Is he crazy? Suicidal?
You swerve onto the shoulder but, for reasons
unknown, you spin around. Your shrill recital
of “No!” explodes the day, the night, the season.
You don’t know how you did it, but you land
across the road, turned in the right direction,
stopped on the southbound shoulder. What calm hand
has helped? The baby slumbers in perfection.
Arriving home alarmed, you phone your parents:
You’re still alive! The day before, you weren’t.