Jean Valentine's elliptical yet lucid poems present experience as only imperfectly graspable. The poems ride lightly on the waves of thought, more textures than statements. The Cradle of the Real Life is divided into two sections, the shorter first section dealing with loss and death and the longer second section, entitled Her Lost Book, which weaves memories with various metaphors for writing, and deals specifically with the problem of women's writing. These finely wrought pieces take stark subject matter and make it shimmer; the poems take their shape as much from the absences as from the words, just as life is given meaning by the losses we survive.