The Inspired Heart, Author: Amy Barry, Andrew Meek, Bruce Kauffman et al. (compilation), Melinda Cochrane International, August 2013, Page Count: 144
The Inspired Heart is a contemporary international anthology of poetry from Melinda Cochrane International. This is one of the first publications of Melinda Cochrane International, a company that mentors and publishes writers. She is a multitalented Poet/Writer/Educator/Speaker/Radio Host/Mentor and Publisher. She has overcome traumatic life experiences and written about healing through artistic passion and her own personal memoir in The Fired Heart. She mentors writers with a particular focus on inspiring women to find their voice and healing “in a fountain of growth and awareness.”
On an open submission call for poetry from women and in the celebration of women, Poet Melinda Cochrane with the help of Poet Bruce Kauffman as editor has published a beautiful collection from renowned Poets and Authors worldwide. I was impressed that although a tome of the feminine, men Poets and their experiences were not excluded from the book.
This poetry anthology illustrates the patterns and colors of love and the feminine from different places and languages (although all the poetry is in English). The Poets hail from across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Ireland, Liberia amongst other places. This writer is always impressed by drop dead, falling off the bone poetry, to be found almost often in this volume of contemporary verse. Traveling the gamut of the state of the feminine, from politics to the secrets of sex, procreation, and the truth telling of poetry and the healing power of earth mother Gaia.
The mystery and shadows of the world of women and the powerful telling of their stories in poetry; how men love them, how they love men and all the degrees of truth inside spaces of worship of the goddess and the juxtaposition of over constructed power paradigms. Within this anthology I found several favourite Poets who are new to me. I was particularly struck by the power in beauty of imagery in the poetry by Linda Ibbotson. In “Incense, Prayer Book and Your Broken Tibetan Heart” – “Glacier blue eyes, scarlet lips,/flavored with/Darjeeling tea and pomegranates.” In “Seduction” – “Oranges,/sweet oranges,/the scent/of Morrocan oil,/lie abreast/on red ochre” and in “Your Notes” – “Pre-Raphaelite eyes,/charcoal etched/in Florence./Tousled hair,/textured,/on damson velvet.” The mythos of the goddess in “Eve” by Sharon Frye, “She forgot/she was naked,/ploughed through frozen drifts/necklace of apple seeds/fell warm on her breast”.
The searing poetry touches with “Strings” by Gina Nemo “My heart weeps/paint the guitar with it”. And the enigmatic feminine essence of “How to Love” by Leah Vine – “It is easy,/For me,/To share secrets with the lilac bush,/The one I pass early in the morning/On my way to buy pears and milk/For breakfast.” Also the graphic imagery in “Ritual” by Silva Zanoyan Merjanian is riveting, “The day drops/on the bathroom floor./Moments in glass marbles/scattered around bare feet./Some lived into scratches,/some shine without my prints.” And the not easily forgotten “breath” by Bruce Kauffman – “and here alone now/i’ve lost count of how many words/in the air have echoed themselves off/empty walls since”. And the stories of women in poetry are eclectic and varied. The poem of an artist obsessed in La Femme by Silva Zanoyan Merjanian – “trill of her laughter on his Gitanes yellowed fingertips/he brushed her spirit in colors of spring”. The story of Georgia O’Keefe in “Georgia Okeefe in a Steiglitz Portrait” by Joseph Arechavala, “Her expression is the severity of desert/where sand will grind to the/white bone the soul She paints/lack of water in the canvas/actually making up thirst”.
Also, a story of a young girl who becomes a stripper in “After Hearing Stripper’s Carnival” by Kay Kinghammer, “No job, no school, no money, no dance,/I dreamed and I ran./I ran and I dreamed./I hitchhiked to Hollywood.” And the story of girls sold into sexual slavery in India in “Sold at Seven” by Patricia Ross – “With bared teeth/The “apes” grinned/Rusted smiles/Patted innocent hair/The sweet smell of magnolia/Spread over her bowed head.” Other great reads in the anthology include Emily Bilman, Ruth Morris, Amy Barry, Mahasty Eslahy, Sandra Stephenson, Phillip Larrea, Gene Berry, Ruth Morris, Dr. Ram Sharma, Andrew Meek, Kelsey Jean Marie O’Toole, Olayemi Ayo and Melinda Cochrane, amongst others. The poetry is an eclectic mix of styles from the post-moderns to poetic prose and vignettes. On the wings of doves from Melinda Cochrane International, a cornucopia of offerings from international Poets and Writers celebrating the light and shadows of the goddess in healing art, New Age poetry for our time. The Inspired Heart is available at www.melindacochrane.com and Amazon.ca.
The Inspired Heart is a contemporary international anthology of poetry from Melinda Cochrane International. This is one of the first publications of Melinda Cochrane International, a company that mentors and publishes writers. She is a multitalented Poet/Writer/Educator/Speaker/Radio Host/Mentor and Publisher. She has overcome traumatic life experiences and written about healing through artistic passion and her own personal memoir in The Fired Heart. She mentors writers with a particular focus on inspiring women to find their voice and healing “in a fountain of growth and awareness.”
On an open submission call for poetry from women and in the celebration of women, Poet Melinda Cochrane with the help of Poet Bruce Kauffman as editor has published a beautiful collection from renowned Poets and Authors worldwide. I was impressed that although a tome of the feminine, men Poets and their experiences were not excluded from the book.
This poetry anthology illustrates the patterns and colors of love and the feminine from different places and languages (although all the poetry is in English). The Poets hail from across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India, Ireland, Liberia amongst other places. This writer is always impressed by drop dead, falling off the bone poetry, to be found almost often in this volume of contemporary verse. Traveling the gamut of the state of the feminine, from politics to the secrets of sex, procreation, and the truth telling of poetry and the healing power of earth mother Gaia.
The mystery and shadows of the world of women and the powerful telling of their stories in poetry; how men love them, how they love men and all the degrees of truth inside spaces of worship of the goddess and the juxtaposition of over constructed power paradigms. Within this anthology I found several favourite Poets who are new to me. I was particularly struck by the power in beauty of imagery in the poetry by Linda Ibbotson. In “Incense, Prayer Book and Your Broken Tibetan Heart” – “Glacier blue eyes, scarlet lips,/flavored with/Darjeeling tea and pomegranates.” In “Seduction” – “Oranges,/sweet oranges,/the scent/of Morrocan oil,/lie abreast/on red ochre” and in “Your Notes” – “Pre-Raphaelite eyes,/charcoal etched/in Florence./Tousled hair,/textured,/on damson velvet.” The mythos of the goddess in “Eve” by Sharon Frye, “She forgot/she was naked,/ploughed through frozen drifts/necklace of apple seeds/fell warm on her breast”.
The searing poetry touches with “Strings” by Gina Nemo “My heart weeps/paint the guitar with it”. And the enigmatic feminine essence of “How to Love” by Leah Vine – “It is easy,/For me,/To share secrets with the lilac bush,/The one I pass early in the morning/On my way to buy pears and milk/For breakfast.” Also the graphic imagery in “Ritual” by Silva Zanoyan Merjanian is riveting, “The day drops/on the bathroom floor./Moments in glass marbles/scattered around bare feet./Some lived into scratches,/some shine without my prints.” And the not easily forgotten “breath” by Bruce Kauffman – “and here alone now/i’ve lost count of how many words/in the air have echoed themselves off/empty walls since”. And the stories of women in poetry are eclectic and varied. The poem of an artist obsessed in La Femme by Silva Zanoyan Merjanian – “trill of her laughter on his Gitanes yellowed fingertips/he brushed her spirit in colors of spring”. The story of Georgia O’Keefe in “Georgia Okeefe in a Steiglitz Portrait” by Joseph Arechavala, “Her expression is the severity of desert/where sand will grind to the/white bone the soul She paints/lack of water in the canvas/actually making up thirst”.
Also, a story of a young girl who becomes a stripper in “After Hearing Stripper’s Carnival” by Kay Kinghammer, “No job, no school, no money, no dance,/I dreamed and I ran./I ran and I dreamed./I hitchhiked to Hollywood.” And the story of girls sold into sexual slavery in India in “Sold at Seven” by Patricia Ross – “With bared teeth/The “apes” grinned/Rusted smiles/Patted innocent hair/The sweet smell of magnolia/Spread over her bowed head.” Other great reads in the anthology include Emily Bilman, Ruth Morris, Amy Barry, Mahasty Eslahy, Sandra Stephenson, Phillip Larrea, Gene Berry, Ruth Morris, Dr. Ram Sharma, Andrew Meek, Kelsey Jean Marie O’Toole, Olayemi Ayo and Melinda Cochrane, amongst others. The poetry is an eclectic mix of styles from the post-moderns to poetic prose and vignettes. On the wings of doves from Melinda Cochrane International, a cornucopia of offerings from international Poets and Writers celebrating the light and shadows of the goddess in healing art, New Age poetry for our time. The Inspired Heart is available at www.melindacochrane.com and Amazon.ca.