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At the heart of Origami Bridges is the delicate relationship of trust between analyst and patient, a relationship that grows out of the emotional give-and-take of the psychoanalytic process. In this collection, Diane Ackerman, with astonishing candor, lays bare her desires, anger, jealousy, fears, and anxiety, as she probes not only her present emotional landscape but also her past. And what gradually rises to the surface is an understanding of how the poet uses verse to purge her demons, express her delight, or confess secret longing, and through this process come to a better understanding of the self.

REVIEWS AND COMMENTS

"I know enough to know when I'm in the presence of a brilliant mind. Her acrobatic poems are full of fact and exuberance." — Maxine Kumin

"Ackerman is extraordinarily attuned to the ceaseless vibrancy of nature, the life of the mind--the source of all that is human, from our sense of self and beauty to longing and pain--and paradox: that the vital green of summer conceals the red of autumn; that something as delicate as folded paper, as ephemeral as a poem, can serve as a bridge from dark to light. In her beguiling nature writing, Ackerman is superlatively descriptive and wonderfully present. In her poetry, Ackerman's love for and command of words are even more pronounced, more daring and whimsical, and she is positively incandescent here. Ackerman explains that these spirited poems ‘geysered up’ each day during “intense psychotherapy," and there is indeed an aura of oracular certainty about them, a unity and purity that seems drenched in the divine, and yet they're fully grounded in Ackerman's experiences: her Illinois girlhood; adventures in the wild and on the move flying, diving, and skiing; immersions in love, loss, and psychotherapy, a profoundly demanding dialogue that is at once intimate and ritualized. “Psychotherapy and lyrical poetry address many of the same issues,” Ackerman observes, but, oh, what a difference art makes." — Booklist

"Ackerman's work in both poetry and prose is simply the best that I know. It is fresh and alive. And it is wise, grounded in experience. Her mastery of language is extraordinary, a rich pleasure to read." — May Swenson

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