Dogged Hearts

In her fifth collection of poems, Ellen Dor¿atson lends her supple voice to a multiplicity of characters, each with his or her own particular dilemma, distraction, or disarray: Junie biking home to find a new mom, Edur wondering whether he¿s anyone¿s father, a pregnant teen starving herself to lose the fetus, or the widower Lew buoyed by a vision of his wife after her death. With a novelist¿s finesse and a poet¿s details, Watson creates lives that resonate with poignancy and urgency. In Dogged Hearts Ellen Dor¿atson demonstrates a capacious talent for invention and empathy and, with her incomparable linguistic brio, gives us an unforgettable look at how loss and disconnection can usher in chance-to-change reverie and unexpected veerings towards life.