Bøger af Shirley Balance Blackwell

When poet Shirley Blackwell set out on daily walks along the bordos, or footpaths, bordering the acequias (irrigation ditches) of New Mexico's high desert, she discovered herself in a parallel universe where cultures, ecosystems, a code of conduct supporting human survival, and centuries-old folklore were tied directly to acequia community. In Ditchbank Diaries, an experimental mingling of prose and poetry she calls haibuñera, Blackwell invites us to walk with her and the thousands before her, ancient puebloans of Chaco Canyon, Spanish colonists of the 16th Century, even the Conservancy ditch rider who patrols her daily route, to explore this largely unknown cultural heritage that defines both geological and spiritual landscape in the Land of Enchantment. In these pages we meet the inhabitants, wild, domesticated, human, and mythological, who create the acequia's "collective imaginary," that sense of place, tradition, sacredness, enchantment, linked to the villages dotting New Mexico's uplands and canyons. There, acequias sustain a precious way of life. However, as Blackwell reveals how the ditchbank walks have transformed her own life, we see that acequias are vital to all of us.

To find a hidden thing already there, one must first pay attention. A childhood spent in the grand but unforgiving landscapes of the desert southwest and a career as a national security analyst reinforced that insight for Shirley Blackwell. Already There is an eclectic harvest of poems found by combining rigorous intellectual investigation with a personal longing to understand both the workings of the cosmos and of the human heart. Whether the topic is caring for a mother-in-law with dementia, finding one's own path, or lessons in courage for a 4-year-old terrorized by a neighbor's vicious turkey, the poet speaks in a voice of unflinching candor. The natural world suffuses this book both as metaphor and for its own, but don't expect a sentimental treatment of the birds and beasties in these poems. They all occupy a niche in the food chain. What you can expect is poetry imbued with depth and whimsy, scientific fact and mythical fantasy, gentleness and raw honesty-all couched in precise, musical language. These perceptive poems celebrate the strength of the human spirit as well as its place in a wondrous universe.