Amy Haddad, Donna Pucciani, Johanna Shapiro & Audrey Shafer
Life passages are rarely blinkered leaps into new territory with nary a backward glance. Rather, such journeys are marked by forward and backward glimpses, yearnings, side steps and ultimately transformations which are as dependent on the journeys themselves as on the starting and ending points. How we choose to mark such passages — to honor, respect, vilify, dissect, fight and accept them — is the stuff of lives lived, witnessed, held. It is the stuff of poetry.
The three educator-poets featured here lead us on their journeys of loss and discovery. Like good guides, each knows her terrain and points out not only vistas but also small yet telling details. Each also allows us moments to catch our breath between startling turns which leave us breathless with wonder. We are led into private spaces: bedrooms, nursing facilities, operating rooms. And further—into the privacy of passion and grief.