from the cover: Body Rain is--flower and thorn--a book of mothers and daughters; of sons become predators and victims; of violation and nurturing. In J. A. Hamilton's poems blood is red, black hearts are black. There is no flinching from things as bad as they can be--especially, but not only, for women. And yet, this passionate powerful writing radiates affirmation. 'The force of the living' is felt everywhere in the deep heart logic, in the music of surprise, of the language of Body Rain.

"J. A. Hamilton (Jane Eaton Hamilton) is not a poet content to whisper in your ear or take you on slow walks through pretty fields. She sits you down in her hardest chair, litters tacks on the floor about your naked feet, and holds you there petrified but alert as she speaks the body's news." -Leon Rooke