Robin Becker reminds me that to be a Jew or a feminist is to live with duality of culture language and dream The several warring parts of a complex identity imposed inherited chosen don t make easy sense Events are funny painful awkward unassimilable With passionate intelligence Becker conjures them for me and I identify Joan Larkin Robin Becker s Backtalk makes us think back The dialogues are exciting and there is a lot to look at You may meet yourself in her book with Becker standingover your shoulder holding both her magnifying glass and mirror before you Off Our Backs Robin Becker s poems tell truths of a special kind Most of us know them already in our gut and groin Becker talks from the back of love about those undervalued repressed feelings that lovers often have difficulty being upfront about These poems are like one half of a dialogue social communication rather than solitary contemplations People almost always occasion them they are written to or about someone Valley Advocate