Overview

It's a stunning act of courage when Johanna Ely manipulates twenty-six letters and spells out a depth of pain, yearning, and everyday contemplations from the alphabet soup of her mind. Her voice, attuned to brilliant imagery, is both subtle and striking as she wields her palette of pinks, greys, and metallic threads over each page of this collection. She's a language artist who travels through dappled sunlight and bleak shadows to bare her gifted essence. About the Author Johanna Ely is the author of two chapbooks, Transformation (2015) and Tides of the Heart-Poems for Benicia (2018). She is an award-winning poet and had a poem nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018. She has been published in many journals and anthologies, including The Poeming Pigeon and California Quarterly. Johanna served as the sixth poet laureate for Benicia, California. In 2018, she collected poems written by the Benicia First Tuesday Poets and put forth the anthology, Light and Shadow, published by Benicia Literary Arts. She hosts the monthly series, Poetry Inside Out, inviting poets from all over the Bay Area to come to Benicia and read their work. She also enjoys writing ekphrastic poetry and has coordinated many ekphrastic readings at the local galleries.

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9781421836485

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Reviews

These short poems in simple metaphors slide us into our own inner deeper feelings. Johanna Ely creates a dance of inspiring and thoughtful sensations connecting us to nature and oneness, word by word. We know where the postcard is from without checking the postmark. Love, affirmation, and sensuality leap from the pages with clarity. -Nina Serrano Poet, Author, Film Maker, and Radio Host/Producer Take this book in your hand and feel it breathe, feel life stir inside it. Open it, and the poet invites you into her dreams, into moonlit gardens where unruly nature holds sway--the flawed natural world with which she feels a kinship deeper than words. But words are all she has, and with them she engages the material world in all its luscious disorder. Kisses bloom like ripe fruit; buds flower and die in a day. Bodies age, passion remains. This poet does not seek perfection. From loss and mutability she snatches hard-won moments of joy. Follow her, and hear the birds, smell the flowers, feel the wind against your cheek. Open your senses and enter her mysterious garden of dreams. -Mary Eichbauer Editor-in-Chief, Benicia Literary Arts It's a stunning act of courage when Johanna Ely manipulates twenty-six letters and spells out a depth of pain, yearning, and everyday contemplations from the alphabet soup of her mind. Her voice, attuned to brilliant imagery, is both subtle and striking as she wields her palette of pinks, greys, and metallic threads over each page of this collection. She's a language artist who travels through dappled sunlight and bleak shadows to bare her gifted essence. -Nicky Ruxton Member of the California Storytellers

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