EMPTY ME FULL IBD

Sinopsi

'Empty Me Full is an invitation to intimate conversation with a wise and affectionate seeker. But Catherine Abbey Hodges is no common questioner. Hers is a wit-laced and vulnerable wondering as she looks back over a life-loss of parents and recollection of girlhood pleasures, long marriage and motherhood. Exhilarated by relationship with human, animal, earth and sky, in language honed with care and cadence, her surprising turns of thought and discovery deepen our shared humanity. Without being sentimental, the book is rich with sentiment. Without dictating belief, the collection inspires reverence for the greater-than-human. In poems that turn grief to awe and sadness to wonder, the poet celebrates our stunning, imperfect lives. When she allows, âÇÖItâÇÖs not a sad thing, / perhaps, to be always a bit sadâÇÖ we sigh into our shared frailty. And when she encourages âÇÖa nod, a long gaze, three deep bows,âÇÖ we comply.'á-Barbara Rockman Author of to cleave'âÇÖI sing of times trans-shifting,âÇÖ said Robert Herrick, and so does Catherine Abbey Hodges in her new collection, Empty Me Full. She mingles elegies of loss with skillful praise of tenuous beauties in ways that make the heart rejoice even as it keeps on aching. These are gorgeous and thoughtful poems, self-consistent but full of surprising meanders and turns. Of all the poets that I know, Hodges is one of the few I return to again and again for repose and nourishment. âÇÖMaybe time dreams us,âÇÖ she says. âÇÖMaybe itâÇÖs alright to rest.âÇÖ'-Paul J. Willis Author of Somewhere to Follow'The poems in Catherine Abbey HodgesâÇÖ Empty Me Full ask deep and necessary questions of both the speaker and her readers. How to define clarity? What is sorrow, and why must we accept it? Who best explains faith? And even, âÇÖDoes it matter?âÇÖ But everything matters to this poet, and she hungers for a response, if not an easy resolution, âÇÖSpendthrift / world, itâÇÖs me again, listening hard,âÇÖ she writes. This beautifully paced book is a lovely, inviting incantation to notice, to be aware, to live this world âÇÖa little more awake,âÇÖ and to always query, âÇÖhow did we / get here? And can we stay forever?âÇÖ'-Jen Karetnick Author of Inheritance with a High Error Rate'In Empty Me Full, Catherine Abbey Hodges tenderly interrogates the workings of time. She travels with remarkable ease through the liminal corridors between life and death, how we remember, and what we can know. âÇÖWhat else donâÇÖt we know?âÇÖ asks the bookâÇÖs first poem. The answer: âÇÖAlmost / everything.âÇÖ Her poetry carries in it a stillness that takes you into a brief respite of calm. Even death seems calm-recent death of her mother, a visitation from her dead father, the death of the stars. âÇÖBecause the end hovers,âÇÖ she writes, âÇÖI think we should kiss // and kiss and kiss....âÇÖ'á-Donna Spruijt-Metz Author of General Release from the Beginning of the World