Reviewed by the Author
Some wonderful reviews of my new book Poems for Flourishing have recently appeared in local publications. It makes me happy, and also gives me pause. I know from my own experience that each person reading the same book takes in different meanings and messages, but when it’s my own book, it’s startling to wonder what book the reviewers are talking about.
I find that being startled is always useful. The gift in this case is that it has prompted me to ask my own self, what the work is about. Here’s what I have discovered so far. I have stopped telling stories of what I don’t want, or what don’t like. My poems tell stories of what I want and what I love.
I am a daughter of earth and earth experiences. Each breath is made for me by plants. Each sip of water is given me by clouds and streams. How can I be so ungracious as not to thank what sustains me? My poems are praisemaker gratitudes to the Godma in each element and in each experience.
As poetplayer, I resoundingly agree when Isabella Ides, in her marvelous novel, White Monkey Chronicles, expresses it this way:
Poetry is the insurrectionist’s artform. It is the soft hammer. A countervailing wind of new song must ruffle the waves of orthodoxy, loosen the hold of old beliefs and clear out the clogged sloughs of dogma to make room for fresh acts of the imagination!”
So, what on earth is Poems for Flourishing about? Well, its songs don’t hold still enough to pin. Read one today and it will dance into a new music in your mind by next week. If that sounds as fun to you as it does to me, get the book.
Hey Susa,
How do I buy your latest book?
Let me know,
Pat
Hey Susa, I’m reading and playing. Thank you for writing about what you want to see, what is beautiful. I am envisioning peace, and love and beauty.
Hi Pat! Just go to Amazon.com and search books, then Poems for Flourishing. Available paperback or ebook. I’m currently seeking Amazon purchaser “reviews”, 1-2 lines + rating. If you are so inclined, it would do me a world of good! thanks and love, Susa
Hi Susa! I just reread “I Stand by Your Ear Unseen” from “Poems for Flourishing” and touched deeply again. You capture the deprivation and fear of Afghan women so well. Having lived in the Middle East for 15 years I can feel every blow and kick. Thank you for keeping this tragic reality alive.