Proof of the Sun by Eve Ott

Querencia Press, softcover, $10.50

How do you write about childhood sexual abuse? You follow Eve Ott’s lead. In Proof of the Sun, Ott chronicles her “journey through childhood sexual abuse” with astounding grace. “It was painful, and as those who have walked a similar path know, it was long. But, once you walk through it and emerge, you know that the longest shadow merely proves the sun.” I have read other poems on the topic of sexual abuse that have sent me into instant mourning for the author’s suffering. But with Ott’s collection, the healing on the page is heartening, even when the topic is heartbreaking. She also tells it straight in “Sun Block” without being covered in defensive armor: “Gazing down at me with one eyebrow arched, / as if he were inspecting a package / that might be damaged, / that he could damage.”

Through the delicate threads of verse, Ott weaves a tapestry of resilience, healing, empowerment, and a commanding voice of truth for her younger self. “I did not know about forgiveness, / or condemnation. / I didn’t even know for sure / what was good and what was evil. / I did know I did not want to go back / to that big house on the hill.”

Like her wise words in “And That’s the Way It Goes”—“Being sexually abused as a child / flips a switch that cannot be turned off. . . . / But if that alarm / awakens you, / there’s no going back to sleep”— you can’t unread these moving words about abuse after closing Ott’s book—a book to forever change you.