The Blue Dress (Marie Alexander Poetry Series) (Paperback)

by Alison Townsend (Author) "The woman is in love with the poem..." (more)
Key Phrases: sea stars, Baldy Notch, Calf Season, Hunt Mountain (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"The project of Alison Townsend's poetry is to chart a course through the deepest of losses--to attempt some safe passage through a lifetime's erasures. Intimate, warm and observant, this book involves us in the inscription of a life."

Product Description

In this quiet, clear-eyed collection, Townsend meditates on loss -- childhood bereavement, depression, divorce -- to arrive at the realization that it is through loss that we come to possess some of life's most profound gifts.

"The project of Alison Townsend's poetry is to chart a course through the deepest of losses -- to attempt some safe passage through a lifetime's erasures. Intimate, warm and observant, this book involves us in the inscription of a life." -- Mark Doty

Alison Townsend was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and spent her childhood in North Salem, New York. She received a B.A. at Marlboro College in Vermont, an M.A. at Claremont Graduate School in California, and an M.F.A. at Vermont College in Mont-pelier. She teaches at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: White Pine Press; 1 edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893996611
• ISBN-13: 978-1893996618
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,618,593 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dazzling honesty and writing skill, April 12, 2003

By	Edith (Tucson, AZ) - See all my reviews

I don't know how she writes about the physical ache, the terrible bruise in a young girl's heart who is picking out the dress for her mother to be buried in. How can she know this exact pain and write about it in such a way that the words heal?

Townsend uses both poetry and prose poems in this collection to display her grasp of both feeling and craft. There are lots of other skillfully distilled moments-- some sad, some giddy with the pure intensity of a remembrance (read "My Life as a Horse") in this book to show that she has a dazzling amount of both in abundance.

Poetry that can express what I have felt simmering inside me and have longed to say is a treasure, so I have to say this book is a treasure chest of such deeply felt and elegantly articulated writing that I am grateful.

Don't be surprised if you buy several copies to give to your friends.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give copies often. Try not to lend your own., April 26, 2003

By	Meg Rothstein "Meg Rothstein" (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews

Blue Dress is an unflinching collection of elegies. Filled with the innate rhythms of heart and memory, each poem sings an inexorably human melody. Each poem really means something. Do not read in one sitting or stir before allowing to simmer.

I'm only grateful that adversity or some freak accident or other fate did not destroy Ms. Townsend before she was able to write this relentlessly gorgeous book. Hers left me bereft, beside myself, then better. Her (appallingly gifted) voice filled the rest of my week with an incomparable sensibility.

The courage of this book. Give copies often. Try not to lend your own.

5.0 out of 5 stars This a good collection to own, May 9, 2009

By	Jordan_Hal (California) - See all my reviews

This is a good collection to own, along with Ohio Blue Tips by Jeanne E. Clark and The Photos In The Closet by Daniel E. Lopez.