The Ecstatic Torture of Gratitude pushes deep into the heart of the human condition. In lush and visceral language, Battson explores loss, beauty, nature, Francis Bacon's ordered hoarding and the meaning of Martha Stewart. Jill's poems whisper like muted Miles Davis tunes melancholy in the ear, or shout their colours from the top of desert mesas. Many of the poems are a result of a collaborative process with dancers, composers, singers and painters, but above all they will live and accrete in your memory like a perfect pearl long after their first reading.

A former art director and filmmaker, Battson was the program coordinator for the Poet`s Refuge reading series; producer of the "Word Up!" series (videos on MuchMusic, compilation CD with Virgin Records and an anthology published by Key Porter); the Canadian poetry organizer for Lollapalooza; and organizer of the "Poetry Express", a poets and playwrights reading series at the Fringe Festival of Toronto. She is well-respected in the spoken word movement in the U.S. and has toured there extensively.

Jill Battson's profile page

An eclectic mix of lyric, narrative and ekphrastic poetry with a generous helping of humour reveals the range and depth of Jill Battson's newest collection. It's no surprise these poems brim with the names of friends and loved ones: Jill Battson's poetic generosity overflows. — Carolyn Smart (author of "Hooked - Seven Poems") Rich poems full of earth, love, light and wit. “I want to see my hands stained by the chlorophyll of their existence” — Robert Priest