Dipped in Shadow

Claire Harris is one of Canada's most powerful poets. Dipped in Shadow shows her at her strongest: the book's five poems making hard-hitting statements about women and their children. "O what are you thinking my sisters," the book's foreword, draws women of all races together in the fundamental facts of female life: fear for themselves and fear for their children. In "Night Dances," a frightening story of sexual and physical abuse, knife-sharp language and experimental form expand words far beyond their usual connotations. "Sister (Y)our Manchild" reminds women that the cruellest soldiers in the most vicious wars are their babies; they have nurtured evil in their beautiful children. "This Fierce Body" reviews the life of a young man dying of AIDS as friends watch at his bedside. Experimental form and language make "Woeman Womb Prisoned," a harrowing evocation of a teenager in childbirth, both moving and provocative.