Let the Dandelions Grow: A Poetic Portrait of a Transsexual Journey and the Human Condition

"Let the Dandelions Grow: A Poetic Portrait of a Transsexual Journey and the Human Condition" is just what it claims to be. It is a large volume of poetry by a woman who spent her first sixty-five years as a man. She is a professor and a therapist as well as a poet. Her poetry is not difficult, but it is always thoughtful, insightful, and a delight to read. Sometimes it is angry, but more often it is witty and amusing and droll. It will make you cry in places, but it will also make you laugh. It will help you understand what it is to be a transsexual, trapped in a body that seems to be of the wrong gender. But it will also help you understand what it is to be human because the entire book resonates with the sentiment so well expressed by John Donne: "Ask not for whom the bell tolls: It tolls for thee." "Let the Dandelions Grow" also delves into what it is to age and face one's mortality. Dr. Etscovitz uses a verse form that is very much her own, rather than merely following the current style or a style of the past, but the form works brilliantly. Even if you don't usually buy poetry, this is a book you should buy and read.