Judith Ansara’s beautifully crafted volume of poetry is as accessible as it is profound; personal, yet at the same time universally relevant. Her poems take the reader on a journey through the multi-faceted terrain of a well-lived life. We travel with her as a social activist; spiritual seeker and guide; world traveler; mother, daughter, wife and friend.
Through the elegant precision of her craft, Ansara’s everyday experiences blossom to reveal gems of wisdom and images that evoke and provoke, illumine and inspire. We are offered intimate glimpses into an almost 50-year love partnership replete with the passion, pain and mysteries common to us all. She explores the nature and power of lineage, from our ancestors through our legacy to the coming generations.
Judith guides us through moments of suffering and joy, struggle and breakthrough, death and impermanence as her poems invite us to explore the elusive boundary our very human selves with the transcendent world beyond form. Her poems are vivid in their detail and her honesty and wisdom invites us to claim our own.
NEW POETRY COLLECTION
ABOUT THE BOOK
"Judith's stunning collection of poems rides the hidden currents of life, leaving the reader with unexpected gifts of insight. Each poem cups the heart and steals the breath, revealing subtle symmetries between life and death."
Joan Borysenko
Best-selling Author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind
The Bones We Once Belonged To
NEW POETRY COLLECTION
The Bones We Once Belonged To
ABOUT THE BOOK
The Bones We Once Belonged To
NEW POETRY COLLECTION
ABOUT THE BOOK
NEW POETRY COLLECTION
The Bones We Once Belonged To
The Bones We Once Belonged To
NEW POETRY COLLECTION
ABOUT THE BOOK
ABOUT THE BOOK
Borrowed
Listen
in Vanuatu on a rutted dirt road
our truck almost collides
with an oncoming car
three grass-skirted women
gasp sound a collective
ahhhhh
wave their reed thin arms
in unison their white teeth
a dazzle of relief
Johanna told me this
strange
how someone else’s story
suddenly becomes your own
now my body knows
the synchronized movement
of those beauties
hears their sighs
when disaster misses
by a single instant
and the other story
the one you wouldn’t want to see
gets thrown to the threshing floor7
how on some narrow curve
or slippery edge suddenly
an arm reaches
steadies your elbow
takes your story in their own hand
and in that companionable quiet
you are sitting in the shade
watching
with your dark sisters