What if the assumptions we hold are mere hostages of the wind? Can we trust the first word, then the second; a language that builds on agility at the expense of psalm? This collection explores childhood, desire, loss, the feminine, immensity in a measured world, the things we think we know, and those we've forgotten.
Through lyrical verse and visual art the author takes us on a journey of personal discovery. She seeks to explore the gifts of the natural world, the sustenance of the feminine, our search for meaning amid the divine and the mundane. What does it mean to suffer, to despair, to hope, to overcome, to find, to give oneself? What makes for truth and beauty in a world that struggles? What is the nature of longing? Where do we come from...travel to? How does the sacred inhabit us?
Sometimes love turns a blind eye, the seasons of a life go missing. What does loss take from us, threaten to give back? Not every crucifix is a bloodbath. The webbed fantasies of the night hold high heels, boot spurs, can memorize money then spit. Are there people who sailed away? What will happen when a woman refinds the skin that has been peeled from her, slides back into your dark water? The poems in this collection explore love, loss, emptiness, spirit, our challenge to become wing perfect and fly.Toni Thomas lives in Oregon. Her poems have been published in Austria, Spain, New Zealand, Canada, England, Scotland, and Australia. In the United States her work has appeared in over fifty literary magazines including Prairie Schooner, North Dakota Quarterly, Hayden's Ferry Review, the Minnesota Review, Notre Dame Review, Poetry East, and more. She has been twice nominated for a Pushcart prize, and won several awards. She has published thirteen collections of poetry and three books for children.