One Red Eye

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"In reading these poems, we experience beauty-paradoxically-as well as come to understand the complexity of the crime, its aftermath, and the relief and joy of recovery."—Roseann Lloyd Perhaps the first full-length work of its kind, One Red Eye is an unexpected book, an intimate story of violence and survival, rape and re-birth, told in verse. In concise, candid, and understated poems, Dierking shares the brutal truth of her own rape experience, while at the same time, demonstrating the possibility of spiritual recovery from sexual assault. This is the story of a life brought to a disasterous standstill, and the subsequent acts of common kindness that allow the author to recapture hope, and move into a changed, but salvageable future. Tough and articulate, One Red Eye defies the silence and guilt that so often surrounds the crime of rape. I Might Have Dreamed This For a short time afterthe rape, I found I could move things. Energy birdsswarmed from my brain. With a witch's senseof abandoned physics, I set dolls rolling.Back and forth. Like a breathing sound. Using only my night-poweredeyes, I pushed the lamp to the dresser's edge.I buried the mirrors in avalanches of freshlylaundered underpants. I never slept. I did all these thingslying down. Kirsten Dierking received a bachelor's degree in International Affairs and History from the University of Colorado, and a Master's degree in Creative Writing from Hamline University. Her writing has appeared in Sing Heavenly Muse, ArtWord Quarterly, Water-Stone , and Xanadu . She lives with her husband in Saint Paul, Minnesota. This is her first published collection.