Said the Manic to the Muse

by Jeanann Verlee

Overview

Jeanann Verlee's second book,  Said the Manic to the Muse , takes a deeper, more focused look at the erratic, whimsical, ominous, and sometimes perilous ways manic depression functions.
Introduced through the careful prophecy of three archetypes: Medea, Jezebel, and Kali-each a woman largely misrepresented and wholly misunderstood-these poems detail the story of one woman's struggle to maintain both strength and sanity in the face of abandonment and aging.
From dangerous trysts and barroom brawls to "grief-induced psychosis,"  Said the Manic to the Muse  recounts the year she lost everything, including her mind.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781938912962
Publisher:	Write Bloody Publishing
Publication date:	04/15/2015
Edition description:	First edition
Pages:	108
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Jeanann Verlee is a poet, editor, activist, and former punk rocker who collects tattoos and winks at boys. Author of Racing Hummingbirds , recipient of the Independent Publisher Book Award Silver Medal in Poetry, her work also appears in The New York Quarterly, FRiGG, PANK, and decomP, among others. An acclaimed performance poet, she has represented NYC six times at National Poetry Slam competitions, performs and facilitates workshops across North America, and curates the Urbana Poetry Slam series at the Bowery Poetry Club. She lives in New York City with her dog and a pair of origami lovebirds.

Table of Contents

I

The Session 17

Children Made of Cotton 19

As Your Body Becomes an Invitation 20

Fleeing the Murder (The Child) 21

Genetics of Regret 22

Mathematician 24

After the Bridal Shower 25

The Proposal 26

Daydream 27

We're Having a Birthday Party 28

Grief, Not Guilt 29

A Boy Named Never 30

Unwriting You 31

The Thorn 33

When Talking to a Dead Girl 34

How did your mother die? 35

II

Lessons in Alone 39

Careful the Blood 41

Girls and Simple Things 43

Souvenir 45

Truism 46

The Bravest Tiling 47

There Is a Dead Bison in Your Bed 49

Folklore 51

Country Hard 53

Jezebel Revisits the Book of Kings 55

While Writing an Ode to My Lover's Hands, He Tells Me about the Revolver 57

Leaving Lena 59

Why You Cry at the End of Her Life 62

Bridge Song 63

III

Wherein the Author Provides Footnotes and Bibliographic Citation for the First Stanza Drafted after a Significant and Dangerous Depression Incurred upon Being Referenced as a "Hack" Both by Individuals Unknown to the Author and by Individuals Whom the Author had Previously Considered Friends 69

The Voices 74

Manic 76

Hereditary 77

Brawler 78

Insomnia 80

Walking Kali 81

Good Girl 82

The Mania Speaks 83

The Smallest Girl 84

How did the author die? 85

I Imagined It Nude, or in a Black Dress 86

Tracing Wrist Scars 87

The Sick Is an Ocean 88

Home 89

Finally I Allow Him the Pen 91

Poem to Translate the Poems 92

Acknowledgments 95

About the Author 98