LAUREN k. WATEL

1. These pieces are called "potions" (potion = poem + fiction). The dictionary defines "potion" as "a liquid with healing, magical, or poisonous properties." The writer chose this term in part because the work combines the compactness of poetry with the narrative possibilities of fiction. Why else do you think she decided to call these pieces "potions?"

 

2. The book begins and ends with poems about waking up. Most of the potions were written as soon as the author woke up, which helps explain their dreamlike qualities. Do you remember your dreams? What do you think they're telling you about yourself?

 

3. Recent science confirms that reading fiction stimulates your brain to mimic the experiences you're reading about. For this reason, encountering characters and events that are completely made up can make people more empathetic. The pieces in this book are made up, but they seek to express certain emotional truths. Are there any that you identify with or feel strongly about as you read?

 

4. This work was written in the middle of life, by a person who felt stuck in the middle of a lot of things. The middle can be an alienating place, not here or there but somewhere in between. Do you feel stuck in the middle of something? What does that feel like? What could you do to get unstuck?

 

5. The potion called "The Island" depicts the narrator swimming around and around an island she never sees. She imagines it as a magical place but wishes in the end that she'd thought to swim away. What's the island in your life?

 

6. BOOK of POTIONS represents one person's attempt to come to terms with things she's buried inside herself, things that make her anxious. For this reason, many of the pieces have an obsessive feeling, and the writer often returns to a subject or theme. Soldiers and war, for example, come up repeatedly. Do you notice any other disquieting subjects that keep coming up in the book? Does reading it bring to mind any unsettling thoughts for you?

 

7. Many of these pieces are grappling with intense situations and emotions experienced by the writer: feeling invisible, powerless, frustrated, overlooked, overburdened by obligations and expectations. They are told through a woman's viewpoint, with a woman's hard-won understanding; however, everyone at one point or another experiences feelings like these. Do you, whatever your gender, relate to any of these situations or emotions? Which ones? Do some make you uncomfortable? If so, why?

 

8. Potions such as "Here We Are" and "The Green" depict a world in which there is no more winter. Do you have visions, bleak or otherwise, of our future planet, given the changes in our climate? What might this planet look like? What might life be like?

 

9. You might notice that a few of the potions have the same title. How do the different versions compare to one another? How does the title change as the pieces accumulate?

 

10. Rage is a feeling that comes up in many of the potions, specifically a woman's rage, which most people consider quite frightening. "Give the Child a Knife" expresses the vengeful rage of a woman disappointed in how men have treated her. Have you ever felt so wronged that you fantasized about punishing the person who wronged you? Did it make you feel better?

 

11. The author recently got married. After reading this book do you feel sorry for her husband?