20th Century Progress

I truly thought I had taken enough quotation liberties with Maggie Nelson's 2007 book Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions but then I got to the end-notes –

"I would also here point out the startling statistic that prior to WWII, women and children traditionally constituted about 5 percent of wartime casualties; now they constitute 95 percent."  

I could not leave that fact unrepeated. 

Photo of Maggie Nelson at far right with poet Eileen Myles at a 2008 reading (Nelson – also on left side of montage – standing at podium, far left). The event took place in Los Angeles to celebrate the publication of the book that has occupied my mind with such persuasive power this past week. On my desk at the library right now are stacked solid collected editions of Barbara Guest, James Schuyler and Alice Notley, three among the poets Nelson's book has persuaded me I have unfairly & foolishly neglected. 

Images here.