Your Skin Is a Country

by Nora Mitchell

“To write superb love poems using the imagery of the contemporary world, to reconcile fast driving, oil rigs, astronauts, the Vietnam War with the most tender and sensous feelings is one of Nora Mitchell’s special achievements. She speaks in a wholly original voice, forthright and respectful of the reader, and she opens to us a world of subtle perceptions, drawn with delicacy and truth. Her skilful interweaving of public and private events, as in the moving “Replay”, makes each more meaningful. This book is a very great pleasure to read.” —Erika Mumford “‘To live on this continent exhilarates me,’ announces Nora Mitchell early in this book; then she goes on to prove it. Her passionate voice sounds like Whitman out of breath, writing in gaspingly brief lines; she seems deeply in love with everything she sees, everyone who touches her. Every experience—driving at dawn or watching Korean pearl divers—is read as transcendently meaningful. Mitchell never slides into the maudlin or bathetic;