Oppression

poems by Judith Skillman

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The central theme of Oppression is war and the innate cruelty of humanity, especially as seen through WWII’s lingering, intergenerational impacts on ancestral figures portrayed in these poems. Patriarchal dominance as it influences domestic life emerges prominently in “You Watch” and “Arguments of the Dead.” Women’s issues begin the collection with “Two of Every” and are further developed through mythological allusions to Penelope, Demeter, and Persephone. Organic imagery—birds, horses, rabbits, chickweed, crabapples—thread Oppression’s five-part structure, and move the reader from domesticity through the immigrant experience, woundedness, and music. While this work is dark, it is hopeful, as if to spite the cynical personas who inhabit the poems.

POETRY / General

ISBN: 978-1-971191*00-3 (print; softcover; perfect bound)

LCCN: 2026933032

Released April 2026 | Copyright 2026

86 pages

Author Biography

Judith Skillman holds a Masters in English Literature from the University of Maryland and has done graduate work in Comparative Literature at the University of Washington. Her “how to,” Broken Lines—The Art & Craft of Poetry is available from Lummox Press. Work has appeared in Cimarron Review, Commonweal, Threepenny Review, Zyzzyva, and other literary journals. Skillman is the recipient of awards from the Academy of American Poets, Artist Trust, Washington State Arts Commission, and Floating Bridge Press. She collaborated on translations of Macedonian poet Jovica Eternijan and French-Belgian poet Anne Marie Derèse. Skillman is also a visual artist who works in oil on board and canvas. Her paintings have been featured in Penn Review, Artemis, Thin Air Magazine, Awakenings Review, and elsewhere.  www.judithskillman.com

Endorsements

“In these remarkable poems, Penelope of Greek lore becomes an avatar. Rather than pining for her husband in the Trojan wars, she accepts instead “the tenuous motif / of marriage, its ceremony / braided and twined around two bodies.” Her modern ancestor here “wanders from room to room, / glaze-eyed, looking for her lost romance.” That same ancestor, widowed and alone at last, pines “for a different husband, / one less calculated in matters / of the heart.” From such oppressions the brilliant uplift arrives braided with the gifts of Jewish culture—a feather to tickle the girl before she is gathered into arms; her Bubbe (grandmother) who “grabbed my head / and spat on it to bless me / and keep me from harm.” Skillman takes us up and down a roller coaster of emotions to arrive purified and cleansed.”
—Paul Lindholdt, Washington State Book Award recipient for In Earshot of Water

“Having followed Judith Skillman’s work since her early publications in magazines, I see a distillation of themes and concerns in this new book. She addresses Jewish family history, its collective trauma carried in silence and expressed unconsciously, obliviously, even confusingly when masked by hard-earned achievements: scientific exploration, superior domestic skills. Although such acts as using a telescope, knitting and sewing often resonate on an emotional level that’s eerily oppressive, we find compassion for parents and other family in this mature poet’s work. There is an Old World, almost quaint quality to the way she speaks of contemporary marriage. Flora and fauna are experienced as if they’re fellow travelers through earthly life. Music becomes something we can taste and visualize. The chronic pain and disability resulting from a decades-old spinal injury bring to mind the isolation in Frida Kahlo’s searingly beautiful paintings. These poems deal more broadly with oppression, both societal and personal, than much of Skillman’s earlier work. As always, her intelligence, refinement, quirkiness, and sensuality offer deep satisfaction.
—Marjorie Power, author of Sufficient Emptiness

“Few poets seize the natural world in the tender, particular ways that Judith Skillman does . . . For a poet who sees this world as does Skillman, nature’s beauty and cruelty is ours as well.”.
—Chicago Sun-Times Book Review

“Skillman’s ability to accommodate multiple meanings in even the most seemingly straightforward of sentences is like being pushed by a doppelganger who insists we jump beyond obvious interpretations.”
—Christianne Balk, The Holding Hours, Pacific Northwest Poetry Series

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