An Educated Heart

In juxtaposing poem sequences respective to the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the breakdown of a family, An Educated Heart raises again the troublesome question of the relationship between the public and the private, in the specific context of a woman's voice. While the two sequences are clearly delineated, the collection also includes poems which could refer to family life, or war, or both. The poems relating to Iraq are by and large composed of fragments of Internet coverage of the war, and an aesthetic of collage, fragmentation, and brokenness pervades the book.