What Pain Does

Poetry. Women's Studies. Photography. "WHAT PAIN DOES, a collaboration between poet Megan Henson and her photographer husband J. Michael Skaggs, begins in the pain management clinic with the collective pronoun, 'we.' There is a generosity throughout this book. Its intimate portrayal of one woman's struggle to live and write herself toward a wholeness that integrates without glorifying intractable physical and emotional pain is specific and personal yet large enough to let us all inside the poet's singular vision. 'I am a story; these are my markings, / my alphabet,' Megan Henson writes. 'I tell you who I am, / and I will not be interrupted.' Skaggs' photography, too, is intent upon removing the barrier between the viewer and the viewed, allowing nerve and vein to pulse up through portraiture's skin, offering a visceral experience of what pain does."--Pauletta Hansel