Friends! Songs in the Garden: Poems from the Land of Becoming launches in ONE WEEK!
On Friday, April 30th, my second poetry collection will make its long-awaited appearance into the world. And I am just giddy—so giddy, in fact, that I couldn’t wait another moment to reveal the seriously gorgeous cover created by the inimitably gifted Elizabeth Baker:
Isn’t it just . . . lovely?
Sigh.
What’s more, to further whet your poetic whistle, here’s a sneak peek inside—the flagship poem of the collection, complete with introduction:
The Patient
One day in the spring of 2018, recently after Songs in the Gate was born, my husband and I took a day trip to Clermont, a historic home on the Hudson River. As we meandered through the grounds, savoring the early summer sunshine, the first line of this poem started reverberating around my brain: It took a long while of sitting by the river to wrest the rest of the poem from the thorny soil of my subconscious. When it was finished, I realized I had drawn a sobering self-portrait: a convalescent soul whining to get out of bed, but bound there—mercifully—by Love.
I had entered the garden—and the gentle (but unyielding) physician, Wisdom, spent the next three years guiding me along the road of recovery. Hence, it seems fitting to begin this chronicle of my journey along that road with this poem—and to end it with the poem’s sequel.
What physic can reclaim a driven soul
Still writhing under convalescent sheet?
’Tis Time, that she be forced to sit and dream
Time for picking out each self-strained seam
Time to trust her weight to freedom’s beam
’Til waiting makes of her a holy seat
That she may bear the weight of being whole
~~~
The sequel mentioned in the intro is “The Patient Recovered”—but, to read that, you’ll have to get the book!
Just for funsies, here’s a video of me reading “The Patient”:
Love this!! Sharing this!!!