“To happen upon pockets of intense literary activity outside the university setting is to know that the written word is truly alive and well. Here is an example… In 1999, Gayle C. Heney founded The Write Group… This, the group’s first publication, includes poems by five women…

In “Poetry of Pain, Passion, Play,” Karen M. Kline evokes the memory of Anne Bradstreet… reminding us that the first bright light in American poetry was a woman from these parts.

These women… write poems that are rooted in place. Lois Sargent makes the point emphatically in “Anniversary Bouquet”: “to have fled [these] changing seasons” would be like “ask[ing] time to stop.”

The celebrated poet Mary Oliver has written that the poet’s work is “mostly standing still and learning to be / astonished.” Blair Gracie Woodman’s poem, “Puddle,” is a perfect example of the poet at work, being, and being astonished.

Heney’s accomplishment is to have brought these poets to light. I cannot help but read Barbara Prolman’s poem, “The Women,” as a celebration of the poets gathered here, “arranged like stately flowers in beautiful cut-glass vases that are illuminated by rays of sunshine.”
Alfred Nicol, editor, The Powow River Anthology

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