how love clarified
the everyday holy of we
the everyday holy of we
The Everyday Holy of We celebrates the journeys of women from the mythic, archetypal, historic, and to the familial. Crafted mostly in villanelles (all but one poem), Abbott expertly uses the repetitive rhyming form in natural cadences that add humor, poignancy and sometimes haunting depth to each poem. All poems are creatively paired with an image from her vibrantly colorful original works of art.
An epigraph from Muriel Rukeyser, “Along history forever, some woman dancing, making shapes in the air,” sets the tone for what follows - a combination of joy, praise, protest, exhilaration, lamentation and hope.
The collection comes in two sections - “Summons of a Common Sisterhood” and “The Abiding Spark.” The first section introduces readers to female figures such as Miriam’s daughter (a force of nature herself), to the tarot archetype Temperance, to anonymous women who have dealt with domestic violence or who have gone missing. The second section is a love story of two women that covers the trajectory of their relationship from the beginning to the death of one of them and beyond. It addresses themes of love, desire, loss, grief and the gut-wrenching challenges of “walking your girl home.” Overall the poems and art work together inviting readers to remember the sanctity of everyday life and be inspired by the resilient potency of our interconnectedness.
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Susan Abbott is a poet/artist who does her best creative work from a place of silence. An eclectic watercolor and mixed media artist, Susan has exhibited her art in various Morongo Basin venues over the past decade including participation in the Highway 62 Open Studio Art Tours, the Joshua Tree Farmer’s Market, The Joshua Tree Public Library, and Joshua Tree Astronomy Arts Theater.
Her writing has appeared in old feminist rags such as So’s Your Old Lady, Sojourner, and Perspective. Her coming out correspondence with her mother was included in Between Ourselves: Letters Between Mothers and Daughters (Houghton Mifflin, 1984). Her newer work appears in Cholla Needles, When Women Awake, Feckless Cunt: A Feminist Anthology (World Split Open Press, 2018), and Touching Creatures Touching Spirit: Living in a Sentient World by Judy Grahn (Red Hen Press, 2021).
Her chapbook Nasty Woman Rise: The Dream and the Curse (2017) was published by Cholla Needles. In 2019, Susan collaborated with Cynthia Anderson on the beautiful art-poetry collection Now Voyager.
An epigraph from Muriel Rukeyser, “Along history forever, some woman dancing, making shapes in the air,” sets the tone for what follows - a combination of joy, praise, protest, exhilaration, lamentation and hope.
The collection comes in two sections - “Summons of a Common Sisterhood” and “The Abiding Spark.” The first section introduces readers to female figures such as Miriam’s daughter (a force of nature herself), to the tarot archetype Temperance, to anonymous women who have dealt with domestic violence or who have gone missing. The second section is a love story of two women that covers the trajectory of their relationship from the beginning to the death of one of them and beyond. It addresses themes of love, desire, loss, grief and the gut-wrenching challenges of “walking your girl home.” Overall the poems and art work together inviting readers to remember the sanctity of everyday life and be inspired by the resilient potency of our interconnectedness.
- - -
Susan Abbott is a poet/artist who does her best creative work from a place of silence. An eclectic watercolor and mixed media artist, Susan has exhibited her art in various Morongo Basin venues over the past decade including participation in the Highway 62 Open Studio Art Tours, the Joshua Tree Farmer’s Market, The Joshua Tree Public Library, and Joshua Tree Astronomy Arts Theater.
Her writing has appeared in old feminist rags such as So’s Your Old Lady, Sojourner, and Perspective. Her coming out correspondence with her mother was included in Between Ourselves: Letters Between Mothers and Daughters (Houghton Mifflin, 1984). Her newer work appears in Cholla Needles, When Women Awake, Feckless Cunt: A Feminist Anthology (World Split Open Press, 2018), and Touching Creatures Touching Spirit: Living in a Sentient World by Judy Grahn (Red Hen Press, 2021).
Her chapbook Nasty Woman Rise: The Dream and the Curse (2017) was published by Cholla Needles. In 2019, Susan collaborated with Cynthia Anderson on the beautiful art-poetry collection Now Voyager.
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