Nan Lundeen’s powerful collection of thirty-eight poems introduces the reader to women who refuse to wear pantyhose, who rebuff the duty train, and who discover the magic of a redemptive red bra.
Her poetry celebrates the goddess in her many guises, the Earth swathed in its solstitial shrouds, and the power of a women’s circle. It reclaims the Persephone-Demeter myth as two independent women and celebrates the “unafraid dark soul” on the longest night of the year. The ancient Eastern goddess, Quan Yin, speaks “soft as a bell offshore/soft as a white petal/dusting cheek of Muse.” The Earth awakens in April and, “the trees — the narrow trees/seemingly dead/everywhere singing with frothy green.”
| What a Circle Can Do Dedicated to my sisters A circle cannot protect us from death because we are mortal. A circle cannot protect us from change because we are creatures of Earth. A circle cannot protect us from conflict because we are human. A circle can heighten our awareness of something more— a circle can remind us we are more than bones and belly and skin. A circle can remind us there is something sacred. We see it in each other’s eyes; we feel it in the love that flows among us. When we are awed by the spiral dance of life, the awful mystery, a circle is our place to reach out and find a sister’s hand. –Nan Lundeen |
Lundeen’s poetry honors the robust women of her Iowa heritage — her late grandmother who becomes an angel, stirring soap in the farmhouse basement as an Easter ice storm rages; her mother, Marian, who refuses to relinquish her singing voice to dementia; and Aunt Geneva, who struggles like a sumo wrestler with her corset on her wedding day.
She finds spirituality in simple scenes, “The praying tree/one gray arm curved upward/as if she were a war veteran/who refuses to relinquish faith,” and she finds grace in her little dog who sits beside her while she brushes her teeth: “Nobody else I know will do that.”
Available at Unitarian Universalist Women & Religion website
Available at Box Factory for the Arts, St. Joseph, MI 49085
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