Precious Energy

By Shannon Bramer

Precious Energy, the fourth collection of poetry from Hamilton-born poet and playwright Shannon Bramer, is a uniquely playful collection of vibrantly sad, peculiar, and often funny poems about domestic life, motherhood, and the baffled child that remains within us all even as we grow up and into whatever person we keep trying to become. Featuring a coterie of subjects, from fish sticks and LEGO pieces to mothers too tired to have sex and solitary swans in everyone's basement, these poems dexterously navigate a landscape of domestic isolation, insecure attachments, and confused personal boundaries with honesty and unexpected humour.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bookhug Press
• Release date: Sep 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781771663311

Shannon Bramer

SHANNON BRAMER is an author of poems, plays and short fiction. She has published Climbing Shadows: Poems for Children, illustrated by Cindy Derby, and several poetry collections for adults, winning the Hamilton and Region Arts Council Book Award for suitcases and other poems. Her collection Precious Energy has also been highly acclaimed. Shannon’s plays include Chloe’s Tiny Heart Is Closed (for children) and The Hungriest Woman in the World. She lives with her family in Toronto, Ontario.

Book preview

cover.jpgTitle Page: scratchy cursive of the title, subtitle, and author. Precious energy: poems by Shannon Bramer. Published by BookThug, 2017

first edition

Copyright © 2017 by Shannon Bramer

all rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

The production of this book was made possible through the generous assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. BookThug also acknowledges the support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Book Fund.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Precious energy / Shannon Bramer.

Poems.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-77166-330-4 (softcover).--ISBN 978-1-77166-331-1 (HTML).--

ISBN 978-1-77166-332-8 (PDF).--ISBN 978-1-77166-333-5 (Kindle)

I. Title.

PS8553.R269P74 2017 C811’.54 C2017-905400-7

C2017-905401-5

cover image by Michael Pittman

author photograph by Linda Marie Stella

this book is for my mother

When Milly woke up there was make-up all over her pillow.

—Fred Eaglesmith

White Paper Birds

Sometimes you have to breastfeed your kid

even when you don’t feel like breastfeeding

your kid. Near the end of her feed she pulls off

to look at you with her round eyes and you don’t

look away. Sometimes you have to sing

your kid to sleep even when you don’t feel up

to any song. When you put her down she

cries, she always cries. You pick her up when

you are a piece of glass. You kiss her

and kiss her and pick her up and put her down

and kiss her again like a wolf.

You are a real mother.

You don’t kick or break any toys

on purpose. And you don’t scream and you don’t weep.