Filthy Labors
Poems
by Lauren Marie Schmidt
Northwestern University Press
Curbstone Books 2
Pub Date
Description
In Filthy Labors, Lauren Marie Schmidt draws on personal observations from her position as a poetry teacher at a shelter for homeless mothers, as well as her own roles as daughter and sister through times of family turmoil. She condemns the indignities suffered by the poor and the powerless and praises the work of those who do the caretaking. Here is poetry in the great tradition of social justice literature going back to Walt Whitman. Organized around the Catholic sacraments, these poems call upon Whitman directly, for his words replace the liturgical text of these rituals to rejoice in the redemptive power of poetry in the absence of religion’s saving grace.
Advance Praise
“If love trumps hate, then these are poems we need now more than ever in this, the Age of Trump. Here are clear-eyed, hard-hitting poems about the Filthy Labors of love, not only for the immediate family, but for the human family, even—or especially—the most despised among us.” —Martín Espada
“Lauren Marie Schmidt gets better and better. In Filthy Labors she’s given us equal parts grit and elegance. The poems are about encounters with people who have stumbled into the dark in their lives. A collection that will often be read in one sitting, there is no poem that is not superbly turned, full of dark wit, and powered by heart.” —Doug Anderson, author of Blues for Unemployed Secret Police
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780810134690 |
| PRICE | $17.95 (USD) |
