Bare Hands, Poems by Lindsey Royce

The poems of Lindsey Royce's Bare Hands grab hold of readers, touching them, caressing them, pushing them, and shaking them: fully connecting and contacting in a visceral, vital way.

Sample Poems by Lindsey Royce

"From Zeus to Athena, from Lear to Cordelia, from Freud to Anna, the sparks between powerful fathers and brilliant daughters have provoked explosions. This mythic electricity drives the poems of Lindsey Royce in her striking first book, Bare Hands. With technical verve (and sheer nerve), Royce writes of a variety of intense relationships-familial and otherwise. She almost seems to lasso her subjects and keep them, with deft twists of prosody, in the bold view of her eye. A latter day Romantic in boots, Royce is both vulnerable and hard-observing, her images visceral and memorable. Bare Hands is a virtuoso debut."-Molly Peacock

"Lindsey Royce hammers out into bright bronze the instruments of childhood torture in this fierce collection. But she's not a victim. She gets the last word in and with these fine poems we see the ascendancy of spirit. Not light reading, this book will burn along your nerves for days after."-Doug Anderson

"Much in the fiery spirit of Cynthia Macdonald's 'Two Brothers in a Field of Absence' or Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy,' Lindsey Royce's Bare Hands explores personal and social injustices through the eyes of a daughter caught in bruising family dynamics. At first, there is vigilant defense; and then, prayers for escape open into self-possession and poetry. "-Scott Hightower

"Lindsey Royce's dynamic debut book of poems, Bare Hands, is bold, out-spoken, and beautifully-crafted, an alchemy that turns the leaden pain of growing up in an abusive family to art of the first rank. Like her poetic ancestors, Sharon Olds and Sylvia Plath, Royce pulls back the thick oak front door of her family's well-appointed upper middle class home, allowing us in on a plethora of ugly secrets. This family that seems to live the American Dream is controlled by a foul-mouthed bully of a father, who imprisons his children in an atmosphere of fear, a fear exacerbated by a mother concerned with the image she projects to her wealthy friends. In poems employing startling and memorable imagery, Royce confronts brutal memories to create her own identity, power and compassion. This collection will enlarge the scope of your own heart."-Pamela Uschuk

ISBN-13: 978-1625492050, 76 pages, $17

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