In Blood Flower, passionate imagery married to music bursts from each line pushing out the boundaries of Uschuk's earlier poems. It continues themes in Uschuk's American Book Award winner, Crazy Love. The poems braid the startling, sometimes brutal stories of her Russian/Czech immigrant family during the McCarthy Era in a conservative Michigan farming community with stories of courageous individuals, especially women, who persevere to love, despite it all. Uschuk's step-grandfather, father, brother, nephews, and first husband all suffered severe PTSD as combat veterans who returned home from wars that ravished not only their lives, but the lives of the women and children closest to them.
This is the history not just of one family but of immigrants in this nation. These poems, although set in landscapes across the globe, commonly draw their imagery and healing from the natural world, the wild world, and the integrity of the human heart.
- ISBN10 1609404122
- ISBN13 9781609404123
- Publish Date 1 February 2015 (first published 16 December 2014)
- Publish Status Transferred
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Wings Press
- Format eBook (EPUB)
- Pages 126
- Language English