Light in Light

By Deborah Gerrish

Light in Light paints a river of illumined images highlighting the author's compilation of experiences, emotions, and memories as not only being grist for the poems, but illustrating a living and breathing record of the poet's personal journey. Whether it is pondering the delights of childhood with its remembrances and long imagination, or later in life, being immersed in suffering, there is witnessing and validation. These conversational poems, chock-full with confessions of faith, are immersed in magic and music, rich imagery, and well-crafted design. The poet plunges into living out the ordinary through the extraordinary, by breathing in the secrets of the peony, the magnolia, the music of the dream. The poet waits for dawn, and for hope that liberates the soul through the natural world, with its transforming spiritual impact. This collection of poems is about health to the bones, the heart, the spirit, and it is through suffering and longing that the tattered soul is unlatched and liberated. As the poet scrutinizes the world, she sees with a creative eye. She scans her past and present with a wide lens, as a noticer of details and particulars, through the poetic expression of enlightening images and metaphors.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Aug 2, 2017
• ISBN: 9781498240949

Deborah Gerrish

Deborah Gerrish is the author of three books of poetry, Light in Light (2017), The Language of Paisley (2012), and the chapbook The Language of Rain (2008). Her poems appear in many anthologies and journals. She received an EDD in literacy education from Rutgers University where she was awarded the Edward Fry Fellowship and holds an MFA in poetry from Drew University. She teaches poetry workshops at Fairleigh Dickinson University and organizes readings for the Visiting Poets Program. She resides in New Jersey with her husband, Jim, and cat, Isaac.

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Light in Light

Deborah Gerrish

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Light in Light

Copyright © 2017 Deborah Gerrish. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-1691-4

hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-4095-6

ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-4094-9

Manufactured in the U.S.A.

November 27, 2017

Table of Contents

Title Page

ONE

This Morning

That Winter

The Return

First Day of School for the Teacher

San Diego Afternoon

The Contest

Little Women

Wounded Angel

The Room

Winter Garden

The Deer

At Dusk

The Gift

Paisley Shawl

TWO

Orange Lantern. Blue Moon Rising

Portrait in the Trees

Aroma in Floral

The Blessing

Petits Fours

The Pink Thread

Bear

The Visit

Peeling

I Turned Around

Awakenings

It Was a Day

Seeley’s Pond

Evening in July

Olive and Fig

The Anointed Cow

THREE

Messengers

The Easel

At the Beach

Amusement Park

The Cat Undergoes a Breakthrough

After the Squall

The Palace

Odes and Elegies

Delilah

When the Diner Closes

Samson Calls Out

Tree-Whisperer

Flight

I Cry Out to Daddy, Abba

The Storm

The Old Man Looks at the Greenhouse from His Bedroom Window

FOUR

World With No End

She Had a Use for Everything

Under the Beech Tree

Oh, If I Were a Bird and Could Fly Away

Dear White Star Line

Early this Morning

They Be Mortals

The Window

The Liberator

Upon Viewing Masaccio’s Carriata dal Paradiso Terrestre

After Ravensbruck: The Woman from Holland Speaks to Me in a Dream

I Lift My Eyes

Eve Looks to the Pear Tree

Memo

Biography of the Pear

Cherry Blossoms

Unlatching

Acknowledgments

Notes

for Jim

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.

—Theodore Roethke

ONE

This Morning

the haze lifted early. In the garden, I planted herbs.

Bluebirds watched. Dew rolled off their feet

like beads of Muscadet.

The woodpecker in search of a mate,

drummed the sycamore tree and