Practical Water

Cover

A L S O B Y B R E N D A H I L L M A N P O E T R Y White Dress Fortress Death Tractates Bright Existence Loose Sugar Cascadia Pieces of Air in the Epic C H A P B O O K S Co‡ee, 3 A.M. Autumn Sojourn The Firecage A S E D I T O R The Grand Permission: New Writings on Poetics and Motherhood [with patricia dienstfrey] The Poems of Emily Dickinson Writing the Silences: Selected Poems of Richard O. Moore [with paul ebenkamp] P R A C T I C A L WAT E R This page intentionally left blank b re n d a h i l l m a n P R A C T I C A L WAT E R we s l eya n u n i ve r s i t y p re s s m i d d l e tow n , co n n e c t i c u t W E S L E YA N P O E T R Y Published by Wesleyan University Press Middletown, CT 06459 Copyright © 2009 by Brenda Hillman All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hillman, Brenda. Practical water / Brenda Hillman. p. cm.— (Wesleyan poetry) isbn 978-0-8195-6931-8 (cloth : alk. paper) I. Title. ps3558.i4526p73 2009 811´ .54—dc22 2009012350 Design and composition by Quemadura Printed on acid-free, recycled paper in the United States of America Wesleyan University Press is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled stock. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. This book is for my brothers, Brent & Brad Hillman for Cal Bedient & Forrest Gander for veterans of the current wars & CodePink This page intentionally left blank ...