Vassar Miller, Swimming on Concrete

Vassar Miller, born in 1924 with cerebral palsy, became a significant poet of astonishing range and power, in spite of her profound physical hardships. In eight books, culminating in publication of her collected poems, If I Had Wheels or Love (1991). Her major subjects are her affliction, her sexuality, poetry itself, and---most often---her religious faith, all eloquently reflected through her command of both formal prosodies and organic verse forms, as well as through her anger and her somtimes wicked wit. Bruce Kellner was her correspondent, initmate friend, explicator in printer, and occasional partner in poetry readings, for nearly twenty-five years, until her death in 1998. His memoir accounts for their relationship.