“I wrote ‘Landscape with Written Statement’ because I wanted to explain to the reader what the speaker in the poem is explaining to the police, that leaving an abuser is not a simple thing, and not leaving an abuser never equals the suggestion that all is well. The indirect, slightly surreal explanation given by the speaker for why she stays attempts to mirror the distorted reality that results from living through violence. She’s also angry, as I am angry, that one in three women have been the victims of an intimate partner in their lifetimes, and yet our culture often doesn’t speak about this kind of violence, and, when we do, we sugarcoat it or blame the victim. I wanted to include difficult details, like the bruised throat, because that is what can happen when someone is strangled; it’s not glamorous like on TV. ‘I brought you here,’ despite my pain, so don’t look away.”