reviews
Dear Judith,
I loved reading the beautiful poems in “ Passion and Provocation.” You know how my favourite author is Marcel Proust He argues that the reader’s recognition in himself of what the book says is the mark of a great book. Proust once famously wrote:
“Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer’s work is only a kind of optical instrument (she) provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader’s recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book’s truth.”
I feel reading these poems that I am discovering things about myself. As you write at the beginning of “ About My Father “
“This is about my father.
but it could be about any father
maybe even yours”
Or, like all of your poems, it could be about me. The situations that capture with your spare and powerful words are from my life and the lives of all of your readers. “A Split Second “ is exactly what happened to me when I fell once, and “Second Chance “ that telescopes your life into seasons of longing culminating in you taking the leap into a declaration of Independence took me through my memories of yearning that took me to declaring freedom from a bad, confining situation . The spirituality all through the poems and highlighted at the end is that of our connectivity. I love “Faith in Surgical Day Care,” that celebrates the faith in medical science that unites us all .
Of course, many of the poems celebrate what it is to be a woman; these help me understand the women in my life. Again, I am reading about women important to me, and so you are writing my life.
Your imagery of nature, of the seasons, is reminiscent of the best haiku poetry. The beauty of poems like “ The Gift “ helps me celebrate the contemplative life. Through your stories of suffering, I remember my suffering. The book is a poetic journey through your life, and through my own life.
We readers are so lucky that you have shared your life of passion and provocation with us.
You have a real gift for words, and I am one more grateful reader.
Hugs and from my heart,
Dave D
Calgary
- Judith, I read your beautiful poems and look forward to re reading them. Each are very relatable and bring strong emotional memories and /or realities. Thank you so much.. I am delighted to read on FB that others have enjoyed as much as I have. Wishing you continued success.
- As I have discovered after reading only a few poems — and I am reading them sparingly to give each one a chance to breathe — your fiery will and wry humor are delivered with a breathtaking economy.
- I love your poems and your deep insights and heart.
- Judith, your voice in your poetry is honest and true and brave. Thank you!
“Your collection is so engaging, and I loved reading it. I find the speaker in your poems to be so inviting; there’s something so warmly conversational about the vast majority of your poems. I don’t know if I said this well enough on the phone call but I really like poems that make me feel like they want me to pull up a chair and have a seat at the table, if that makes sense. Your poems have that in spades. Another strength of this collection is its emotional range. Your collection runs the full breadth and depth of experiences and I really appreciated that as a reader. Too often when I’m reviewing poetry collections it feels as though the poet hits on one note repeatedly. Your collection gave me a wide range of emotional notes. The images, metaphors, and language in each are richly done too. … please just know throughout the collection I was continuously impressed by the poem’s titles and their meanings. I wasn’t surprised at all when I saw the long acknowledgments page at the end of the manuscript that such a high number of your poems have found previous homes in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies. That track record of publication speaks volumes about their quality.“
~Colleen Alles, editor
Regarding the question asked on THE BEGINNING page, it is definitely a treasure! I love there the phrase ‘bearing no flag’ which is the posture of a poet, all things to all men, standing naked as it were. Archibald MacLeish said that poets are “persons of known vocation following the troops: they must sleep with stragglers from either prince and of both views. The rules permit them to further the business of neither.”
The identity factor drew me to many of your pieces. I have five granddaughters, all of whom have recently made the passage of Sandpipers. I was sad to watch it happen, but thrilled to find it so beautifully put into verse.
Your poetry is filled with phrases that pop off the page for me, phrases that capture life-moments reduced to a sparsity and elegance found only in art or mathematics. . . . . . . wares of women spilling off the waves . . . full plumage . . . splash of rebellion . . . drip a drop of life upon the page. And I like that these life-moments do not need to be crucial. To a poet everything is a prayer . . . . . . .shaking out the tablecloth.
I also like the extended metaphor of Fragments (I don’t think I’ve seen a more perfect sensory image) and your spunkiness which is apparent in Comparisons, Apron #1 and At the Perfumer’s. Lastly, thank you for ending with a bow to our own Stanley Kunitz. I, too, have been to his house and treasure my copy of THE WILD BRAID, a gift from a friend.
~Donna Hannigan
“Just a note to say how much I’m enjoying the poems in “Passion and Provocation”. I try to discipline myself to a three poem maximum per day, but binge reading poetry is one of the world’s lesser known guilty pleasures.
One poem in particular, “Motherhood” (p.17), is exceptionally moving. After a dozen readings the honeybee, the thorn, are jelling into metaphor however the blue ink and the well are still unknowns. But that doesn’t matter because I knew instinctively at first reading that this poem was special.
The painter Jasper Johns once said that the reason he was drawn to some of Picasso’s early paintings was their “inherent rightness”. That’s the sense I get from “Motherhood”. It’s something I don’t quite understand, yet I know it’s exactly right.“
~Wayne
