All the Difference

"In tightly written, evocative poems, Shirley Glubka confronts the most decisive choice of her life: to give her three-year old son to another woman to raise. Written over four decades, these poems wrestle with all aspects of that decision, tracing the relationship she has maintained with her son and her own evolving psyche as she makes a life without him. With scalding honesty and language that is often pared to the bone, Glubka questions our basic assumptions about relationship, art,...
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"In tightly written, evocative poems, Shirley Glubka confronts the most decisive choice of her life: to give her three-year old son to another woman to raise. Written over four decades, these poems wrestle with all aspects of that decision, tracing the relationship she has maintained with her son and her own evolving psyche as she makes a life without him. With scalding honesty and language that is often pared to the bone, Glubka questions our basic assumptions about relationship, art, our lust for experience, and existence itself. These poems are a gift to non-custodial mothers but also to all of us as we live out the decisions we have made but can never second-guess." -- Sonia Gernes, poet, novelist, educator; author of What You Hear in the Dark; and: The Way to Saint Ives "This volume with its layered and progressive reflections over a lifetime is fascinating and illuminating...about as thorough and thoughtful as any reflection on mothering I've read, and certainly unique. Whatever anxieties Shirley Glubka and her son Kevin have suffered as a result of her decision, he is very lucky to have a mother who still cares for him, who is both a poet and a philosopher." -- Margaret Blanchard, poet, novelist, artist, educator; author of This Land: a Novel Memoir and Water Spies