In the River of Songs

Susan Jackson is the author of Through a Gate of Trees and the chapbook All the Light in Between. Her writing has been published in the Tiferet Journal, Lips, the Paterson Literary Review, and Nimrod International Journal. Jackson currently lives in Teton County, Wyoming.

“Susan Jackson’s poems are gifts to the reader’s heart and soul, expertly fashioned from language memory, and spiritual insight. While not veering away from the challenges that arise in life—deaths and other losses—each poem ultimately arrives at grace. Their progression charts one woman’s journey on the river of her life, welcoming us into significant personal moments and bringing us into the wisdom of maintaining presence in the face of whatever arises. Naming trees, birds, and the tender moments of a wise woman’s witness, In the River of Songs offers you a journey you will long remember and honor.”

• I. Echo of the Former World The Woman Who Loved Trees All The Light In-Between What I Heard My Mother Say Before I Was Born Pausing Below Inspiration Point, Jenny Lake A Hundred Ravens Honey El Anatsui From Under The Eaves Clementine Making Beds The Funnel The Story of Light Perseid Meteor Showers Pockets Full of Stones A Poem is the Sky II. Early on the RiverSo Big Was Her Kindness Rain, Higuera Blanca Letter Home Souffle The Glass Bottom Boat of the Mind On the Death of a Childhood Friend What Goes Among The Things That Change Quicksilver Mother in the Alzheimer’s Wing Benediction of the Four Birds Let It Be Felt The Painter Was There My Body III. Haying TimeAnything With Wings The Nourishment of Childhood Praise John Henry Ode to a Boiled Egg Song II, Punta del Burro Instructions for Comfort Care Massage Offering of the Bear Paw Bowl Elk Doing the Jigsaw Puzzle What If Every Poem Were A Prayer Acknowledgements Notes With Thanks