Brilliant Little Body -- Brett Elizabeth Jenkins

<p>Brilliant Little Body</em> is a collection of poems that tell the story of survival, of the blessing-and the curse-of being a poet, of seeking love and getting your heart shattered instead. Jenkins owns the body in this collection-every gorgeous flaw and every brilliant blemish. She claims every mistake and misstep, but she doesn't apologize. Instead, she possesses them, tucks them close to her skin, and wears them like a tattoo. This collection is brave and fierce, with enough humor to balance the tears you'll find leaking out of your eyes without even realizing you were crying.</p><p><br></p><p>**</p>&#65279;&#65279;I need to hire the speaker in these funny, vulnerable poems to be my guru. She admits <em>everything. </em>Her sense of the absurd is epic. She understands that humans have to make friends with chaos, that this is especially true for women, and that the imagination is the best escape hatch we have. She gets that beauty and appetite and loss and love and making a million mistakes are inextricable. "There's an earsplitting loneliness to this life-" she tells us, so we know we can trust her. Jenkins is a generous, witty poet, able to juice the fruits of melancholy and make them into wine. </p> </p> Amy Gerstler, author of <em>Index of Women</em></p> </p>Brilliant Little Body</em> walks into the darkest hallways of the self, shines a flashlight on the shadows, and calls them what they are: beautiful, brutal, and entirely human-and Jenkins is our trusty and whip