John's University in Manhattan. She's a filmmaker as well as a poet, and this is clearly seen in her cinematic, quick stepping verse. She is from the school of venturesome women pushing back the boundaries, and taking permission to do so from such seasoned writers as Brenda Hillman, Claudia Rankin, Rae Armantrout…each different in style but with the same poetic intention. Brown dissects the line to see what lies beneath and it is the subtext of consciousness that lifts language. Playful and risky, the poems in The Sleep That Changed Everything, are songs, limericks, prose pieces, testaments, ballads, utterances and shouts. Best among the prose poems is one dedicated to the poet Rod Smith, "Dear Rod Moth," and another poem made from her mother's letters, "How Glad." These are marvelous examples of stitching language with surprise and making it work.