Jasper Magazine's review of "water unto light"

Jasper Magazine is Columbia, South Carolina's leading arts magazine, and Ed Madden wrote a
praise worthy review of water unto light which you can read on page seven of their on-line issue:
Jasper Magazine 2014.

Heather Dearmon's first collection of poetry, published by Finishing Line Press, is now available on Amazon! Please scroll down to read a poem from the book, as well as a review of water unto light by Ed Madden.

 

 

To view book water unto light click here: Amazon

or to visit the FLP Bookstore.

water unto light, poems by Heather Dearmon

Below is the poem, water unto light, originally published in Kalalak 2013 Anthology of Carolina Poets and the inspiration for the title of the book:

water unto light

this is my palm print
sealed in stone. these are

my breasts, still forming.

to awaken

is to go down naked in

the early water. go down

until your head
is submerged, your feet lose
the bottom.

in the womb
you do not breathe, but

open to swallow.

there is always something
being formed: bone, breasts,
thought, love.

my young hand

cast in stone,
cups the various tones

of light, the drops of wet feet

on the path

from water.

 

A review of water unto light by Ed Madden, poet, associate professor of English at the University of South Carolina, and author of Signals, Prodigal: Variations and Nest:

Heather Dearmon's poetry reminds us that this world--the mortal world of families and illness and loss--is a world of both damage and grace. At the heart of the book is the image of the woman healed because she touched the hem of Christ's robe. This image suggests that grace may be found at the edges and margins, in the ordinary and the unremarkable, in the practices of daily life that help us go on, as she says in one poem, "as though life were simple." Or, "as though my father were not dead," to touch on the loss that drives this small but powerful collection. We're also reminded that grace, insufficient though it may be, can be found in words that console and sustain, in poetry like this.