The Human Line Author:Ellen Bass "Poetry," writes best-selling author Ellen Bass, "is the way I pay attention, appreciate, give praise, struggle, grieve, rage, and pray. It's the way I embody my love for the world." The Human Line, Bass' seventh book of poems, startles with its precise detail, intimate images, and wild metaphors. Bass brings attention to life's... more » endearing absurdities, and many of the poems flash with a keen sense of humor. She also faces many of the crucial moral dilemmas of our time-genetic engineering, environmental issues, continuous war, heterosexism-and grounds her vision in the small, private workings of the heart. . . . When I get home,
my son has a headache, and though he's
almost grown, asks me to sing him a song.
We lie together on the lumpy couch
and I warble out the old show tunes, Night and Day . . .
They Can't Take That Away from Me . . . A cheap
silver chain shimmers across his throat
rising and falling with his pulse. There never was
anything else. Only these excruciatingly
insignificant creatures we love.Ellen Bass is co-author of the million-selling book Courage to Heal. She lives and teaches in Santa Cruz, California.« less