The Human Line

"Poetry," writes best-selling author Ellen Bass, "is the way I pay attention, appreciate, give praise, struggle, grieve, rage, and pray. It's the way I embody my love for the world.""The Human Line, " Bass' seventh book of poems, startles with its precise detail, intimate images, and wild metaphors. Bass brings attention to life's endearing absurdities, and many of the poems flash with a keen sense of humor. She also faces many of the crucial moral dilemmas of our time--genetic engineering, environmental issues, continuous war, heterosexism--and grounds her vision in the small, private workings of the heart.." . . When I get home, ""my son has a headache, and though he's""almost grown, asks me to sing him a song.""We lie together on the lumpy couch""and I warble out the old show tunes, " Night and Day . . .They Can't Take That Away from Me" . . . A cheap""silver chain shimmers across his throat""rising and falling with his pulse. There never was""anything else. Only these excruciatingly""insignificant creatures we love."Ellen Bass is co-author of the million-selling book "Courage to Heal." She lives and teaches in Santa Cruz, California.