The Water that Broke You by Patricia Davis

“Patricia Davis has made a book of origins, a series of creation tales in all their possible variations. Hers is pure music. We open with the narrator internalized in the world who, at the same time, contains what is about to be born, the miracle of “fingers, eyes/feet, skin. I carry a double heartbeat.” She is making a letter to the “seed rooting in dark soil,” to the daughter growing within her, and to the women before her—Eve, Naucrate who will give birth to Icarus, Mary. An exquisite, original work that deserves our close attention.”
–Myra Sklarew, author of numerous collections, most recently Harmless

“Patricia Davis celebrates both the natural and the supernatural in this chapbook which presents a rare blend of geophysics, mythology and mother love. Her natural metaphors are finely observed; her mystical ones are mysterious and convincing. This is an uncommon debut, one to be cherished.”
–Laura Fargas, author of An Animal of the Sixth Day

“In The Water That Broke You, Patricia Davis turns to the Icarus myth as the core of a collection that captures the richness of motherhood, the power of transformation and the heartrending loss of a child. With vivid and haunting imagery, these compelling, textured poems invite you to enter a world of imaginative leaps, where the sun, moon, breath, even the “underpalace of shadow,” illuminate how we experience anguish and joy.”
–Michele Wolf, author of Immersion and Conversations During Sleep

“Patricia Davis creates a universe of minute things, so thin you’d call it spiritual, but it’s surprisingly physical. Her words hold energies touched lightly alive as they move, making “spider silk of a bird call.” Her metaphors—often birth, darkness, water, shadow, wing—but even foot, for grounding—become acutely feminine perceptions of what turns out to be, upon reflection, our old world as we’ve never, never seen it. A brilliant achievement.”
–Rod Jellema, author of Incarnality: the Collected Poems

Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!]