To the Artist’s Child

Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents vii
3. I
4. Lullaby 3
5. Under the Roof 4
6. Each Day I Open the Door to Damage 5
7. Directions 6
8. A New Mother Discovers Emptiness 7
9. Self Portrait as a Dam 8
10. The Flood 10
11. Mother Love 11
12. The Meow’s the Thing— 12
13. Further Thoughts on Responsibility 13
14. Nose Tip, 14
15. Wheat Field with Crows 16
16. Tide Pools 17
17. Dear Daughter, 20
18. Sweet Seed, Sweet Poison 21
19. To the Artist’s Child 22
20. Pre-Term 23
21. Child’s Story 24
22. Because we Left the City 26
23. Units of Measure 27
24. Aubade 28
25. Abandon 29
26. Proposal 30
27. The Birth of Doubt 31
28. Advice to My Younger Self: Fall 32
29. Raveling Round the Lake 33
30. Dust Storm 34
31. We Cannot Sleep Alone 35
32. Verge 36
33. Child, 37
34. Epithalamium on a Theory of Gravity 38
35. The Barnyard of It 40
36. Creator, I Try 41
37. Advice to My Younger Self: Winter 42
38. Dear Creation, I Confess, 44
39. II
40. Further Thoughts on Abandon 47
41. Two = Part Invention 48
42. Perfect Wife 49
43. Processional 50
44. How I Learned to Love 51
45. Offering 53
46. Crossroads 54
47. We Wanted More 55
48. Later 56
49. Sometimes, Silence 57
50. In Which I First Discovered 58
51. Encounter 60
52. Spider Season 62
53. Master 64
54. Wanting Not Wanting 65
55. Presage 66
56. Husband, 67
57. On a Photograph 68
58. Carrying On 69
59. It Did Not Happen as You’d Hoped 70
60. Unsettling 71
61. Lullaby 72
62. Hungry 73
63. Little Song 75
64. Clutch 76
65. Before and After 77
66. Afterlife 78
67. Hush 79
68. Revision 80
69. Ambition 81
70. Preface 82
71. Never Have 83
72. Coda 84
73. Notes 85
74. Acknowledgements 86