Not Me: Poems About Other Women by Linda Ferguson

Through a prism of voices, both real and imaginary, we gain new understanding of women’s lives in a world that is not always made for them. Emily Dickinson tells us that she allows only “a glimpse/a wisp/of angel’s breath/a dove’s furtive/shadowed flap,” and by the end of the poem we know why. We touch down into Sally’s day in a tangerine where, while trying to be born, “storms of salt and hail/christened my skin.” In “Not Me,” Cinderella states that “Living where you’re not wanted/is like walking on broken glass.” At once subversive and strong, Ferguson’s imaginative language both heightens and deepens our awareness of ourselves and others.”

–Diane Averill, author of Branches Doubled over with Fruit