The Bad Secret takes readers on a dark yet sometimes comic sojourn through the undercurrents of a life suddenly unmoored by grief, and then to the subsequent rise of the spirit to recovery. Tough-minded and intellectual, Judith Harris's poems are also distinguished by brilliant images close to metaphysical. They reflect on childhood, nature, mental and physical illness, the loss of a mother, and the levity of being simply human. In a voice entirely her own, Harris confronts life's secrets with their hidden meanings inspired by guilt and redemption, offering a music of tenderness and hope.
Judith Harris is the author of the poetry collection Atonement and the critical work Signifying Pain: Constructing and Healing the Self through Writing. She teaches creative writing, literature, and psychoanalytic theory at Catholic University and George Mason University and lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and daughter.
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