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The Second Child: Poems
Nine years after the stunning debut of her critically acclaimed poetry collection A Working Girl Can’t Win, which chronicled the progress and predicaments of a young woman, Deborah Garrison now moves into another stage of adulthood–starting a family and saying good-bye to a more carefree self.
In The Second Child, Garrison explores every facet of motherhood–the ambivalence, the trepidation, and the joy (“Sharp bliss in proximity to the roundness, / The globe already set aspin, particular / Of a whole new life”)– and comes to terms with the seismic shift in her outlook and in the world around her. She lays out her post-9/11 fears as she commutes daily to the city, continues to seek passion in her marriage, and wrestles with her feelings about faith and the mysterious gift of happiness.
Sometimes sensual, sometimes succinct, always candid, The Second Child is a meditation on the extraordinariness resident in the everyday–nursing babies, missing the past, knowing when to lead a child and knowing when to let go. With a voice sound and wise, Garrison examines a life fully lived.
In The Second Child, Garrison explores every facet of motherhood–the ambivalence, the trepidation, and the joy (“Sharp bliss in proximity to the roundness, / The globe already set aspin, particular / Of a whole new life”)– and comes to terms with the seismic shift in her outlook and in the world around her. She lays out her post-9/11 fears as she commutes daily to the city, continues to seek passion in her marriage, and wrestles with her feelings about faith and the mysterious gift of happiness.
Sometimes sensual, sometimes succinct, always candid, The Second Child is a meditation on the extraordinariness resident in the everyday–nursing babies, missing the past, knowing when to lead a child and knowing when to let go. With a voice sound and wise, Garrison examines a life fully lived.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 17, 2025
I was disappointed here, finding these poems un-challenging and plain.
October 21, 2016
I really liked the poems, but I found myself reading them really quickly without thinking. I think that was more my own fault than Deborah's. It was all my fault actually. This is really just to remind me to slow down.
Deborah really captures these unique moments with her children, which I really enjoyed. As a childless young woman, it makes me reflect more on my own childhood and the idea of coming to these realizations.
Deborah really captures these unique moments with her children, which I really enjoyed. As a childless young woman, it makes me reflect more on my own childhood and the idea of coming to these realizations.
January 1, 2026
My husband gave me this lovely collection of poems by Deborah Garrison about 3 years after we had our second child. Re-reading it now, when that boy is now 22, brings gives me a broader understanding and appreciation of the aspects of motherhood, the beautiful and exhausting, the heartbreaking and monotonous. The author of "A Working Girl Can't Win," so adeptly puts so much of the motherhood experience into a sparse amount of words. Here's one I love:
"A Drink in the Night"
My eyes opened
at once for you were standing
by my side, you'd padded
in to ask for a drink in the night
The cup was-- where
Fallen down, behind?
Churning in the dishwasher downstairs?
Too tired to care, I cupped
my hand and tipped it
to you. You stared, gulped
some cold down your chin.
Whispered, "Again?
O wonder. You'd no idea
I could make a cup.
You've not idea what
I can do for you, or hope to.
You watched, curious and cool,
as I cupped some
to my own lips, too,
then asked,
"Why does it taste better?"
"A Drink in the Night"
My eyes opened
at once for you were standing
by my side, you'd padded
in to ask for a drink in the night
The cup was-- where
Fallen down, behind?
Churning in the dishwasher downstairs?
Too tired to care, I cupped
my hand and tipped it
to you. You stared, gulped
some cold down your chin.
Whispered, "Again?
O wonder. You'd no idea
I could make a cup.
You've not idea what
I can do for you, or hope to.
You watched, curious and cool,
as I cupped some
to my own lips, too,
then asked,
"Why does it taste better?"
September 21, 2025
A collection of poems about parenting and having a second child.
from The Second Child: "Before you arrived / for a time I cried // nightly at the fattening, spelling the end / of our tight, well-tended // trio. The carefully scheduled bliss / of bath and bed—luxurious // brace of both to read a single book, / darting between us, her drinking-all-in, wee weighty look, // her finger-gesture toward some new developmental toy / or crystal bit of babble our post0crib nightcap, rehashed joy..."
from Sestina for the Working Mother: "No time for a sestina for the working mother. / Who has much to do, from first thing in the morning / When she has to get herself dressed and the children / Too, when they tumble in the pillow pile rather than listening / To her exhortations about brushing teeth, making ready for the day; / They clamor with "up" hugs when she struggles out the door."
from The Second Child: "Before you arrived / for a time I cried // nightly at the fattening, spelling the end / of our tight, well-tended // trio. The carefully scheduled bliss / of bath and bed—luxurious // brace of both to read a single book, / darting between us, her drinking-all-in, wee weighty look, // her finger-gesture toward some new developmental toy / or crystal bit of babble our post0crib nightcap, rehashed joy..."
from Sestina for the Working Mother: "No time for a sestina for the working mother. / Who has much to do, from first thing in the morning / When she has to get herself dressed and the children / Too, when they tumble in the pillow pile rather than listening / To her exhortations about brushing teeth, making ready for the day; / They clamor with "up" hugs when she struggles out the door."
May 16, 2022
My first book by Garrison, A Working Girl Can’t Win, is a bit messed up from an cocktail I spilled on it 20 years ago.
This new book has coffee stains on the cover from where I used it as a coaster in the early hours before my children woke up.
A difference reflecting the growth Garrison and I have both had over the last few decades.
Excellent poems on motherhood, wanting, changing- on life that was and life that will be.
This new book has coffee stains on the cover from where I used it as a coaster in the early hours before my children woke up.
A difference reflecting the growth Garrison and I have both had over the last few decades.
Excellent poems on motherhood, wanting, changing- on life that was and life that will be.
August 29, 2020
On the subject of motherhood, with one poem called, "A Poem about an Owl." This author has been an editor at THE NEW YORKER for years. Literal language pieces for which I was craning my neck to appreciate the imagination. Some poems with end rhymes, but I couldn't appreciate the illustration of craft. Narrative pieces, not image-driven.
October 13, 2019
Not as compelling as her collection of a working can't win, I was drawn to the vulnerability of the struggle in the last collection. This collection is comfortable, not bad by any means, but not gripping either.
October 10, 2023
Substance is missing in a lot of these poems where it’s an easy read but not memorable.
Loved the idea of this book around motherhood a second time around but the writing didn’t go deep enough for me.
Loved the idea of this book around motherhood a second time around but the writing didn’t go deep enough for me.
January 8, 2019
It wasn't a terrible read but nothing really grabbed me. Maybe if I had children, I would've felt a stronger pull to the poems.
August 18, 2019
Favorites :
Goodbye, New York
Bedtime Story
A Drink in the Night
A Human Calculation
Either Way, No Way
Pink and White
Add One
Goodbye, New York
Bedtime Story
A Drink in the Night
A Human Calculation
Either Way, No Way
Pink and White
Add One
September 17, 2020
Excellent collection that addresses the beauty and struggles of motherhood!
August 26, 2012
From Wikipedia: Serious critics like one reviewer for Library Journal claim that "Garrison entertains, but shallowly." Similarly, William Logan of The New Criterion wrote, "It's not that these poems are bad, though they're bad enough; it's that they're not sure what poems should do."
I'm not sure I would be quite as harsh, but I would say that Garrison's poetry is designed for an audience that perhaps might not include me. Her poems are simple and show their cards--the rhymes are not subtle, nor is the emotive output. There wasn't the mystery I often look for in poetry--her wonder felt overstated, overwritten and not rendered in the startling way good poetry is. It makes me wonder what one sacrifices for accessibility--this is a book of poems I would give to a non-poetry-reader and feel confident, but would it open doors for that reader?
What I can say is that I admire the work Garrison does--the work at Knopf's poetry department and being a mother of three, no small tasks.
I'm not sure I would be quite as harsh, but I would say that Garrison's poetry is designed for an audience that perhaps might not include me. Her poems are simple and show their cards--the rhymes are not subtle, nor is the emotive output. There wasn't the mystery I often look for in poetry--her wonder felt overstated, overwritten and not rendered in the startling way good poetry is. It makes me wonder what one sacrifices for accessibility--this is a book of poems I would give to a non-poetry-reader and feel confident, but would it open doors for that reader?
What I can say is that I admire the work Garrison does--the work at Knopf's poetry department and being a mother of three, no small tasks.
October 21, 2016
The author has an exquisite ability to make ordinary moments extraordinary. I read the book in one sitting, expecting to find one or two poems that I liked, then expecting to find one or two I didn't like, then finding that I enjoyed them all.
One of my favorites: A Drink in the Night
My eyes opened
at once for you were standing
by my side, you'd padded
in to ask for a drink in the night.
The cup was--where?
Fallen down, behind?
Churning in the dishwasher, downstairs?
Too tired to care, I cupped
my hand and tipped it
to you. You stared, gulped,
some cold down your chin.
Whispered, "Again!"
O wonder. You'd no idea
I could make a cup.
You've no idea what
I can do for you, or hope to.
You watched, curious and cool,
as I cupped some up
to my own lips, too,
then asked,
"Why does it taste better?"
One of my favorites: A Drink in the Night
My eyes opened
at once for you were standing
by my side, you'd padded
in to ask for a drink in the night.
The cup was--where?
Fallen down, behind?
Churning in the dishwasher, downstairs?
Too tired to care, I cupped
my hand and tipped it
to you. You stared, gulped,
some cold down your chin.
Whispered, "Again!"
O wonder. You'd no idea
I could make a cup.
You've no idea what
I can do for you, or hope to.
You watched, curious and cool,
as I cupped some up
to my own lips, too,
then asked,
"Why does it taste better?"
January 10, 2008
There is something unnerving and slightly repellant about the tone of these poems, perhaps just the absorption in parenting itself, which at once seems inevitable and sad is reflected here. However, there are some very beautiful moments of sound and meaning in these pages crafted by a woman who is seemingly doing it all- 3 kids, poetry editor at Knopf and managing to publish and write her own work- who says on pg. 59 " I don't mean to sound spoiled, but please don't think I don't know how grateful I should be
for what I do have..."
for what I do have..."
May 13, 2008
My favorite poems from this collection (written by a mother of three) are "Bedtime Story" and "Add One". Not all the poems speak to me, but there are ones that capture bittersweet moments of motherhood and resonate.
December 3, 2007
I love her poetry. Mothers would love this--a lot of the poetry is about her experience as a mother.
October 3, 2017
Love the way Garrison takes the everyday mom moments and makes them sing!
February 16, 2010
I love Deborah Garrison's poems.
February 25, 2012
either way no way
the consuming obsession: when will it come
to the man in a loden coat
into the lincoln tunnel
the consuming obsession: when will it come
to the man in a loden coat
into the lincoln tunnel
March 2, 2009
Very simple, moving poems.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews