Poetry Prescription

Claiming the Spirit Within

Edited by Marilyn Sewell
368 pages
5/5: rating

I was reading one of my other favorite books yesterday, Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. In the book, Ban Breathnach's essay for August 22nd is titled Poetry Prescription. She talks about reading potery and connecting back to ourselves again. Which brings me to one of my favorite anthologies of poetry, Claiming the Spirit Within.

Claiming the Spirit Within was published in 1996 by Beacon Press. It's a sourcebook on women's poetry with themes such as aging, the body, generations, mothering, death, conception and birthing, and so much more. There are poems from women like Joy Harjo, Jane Hirshfield, Audre Lorde, Tess Gallagher, Rita Dove, and so many more.

I had just happened by chance to pick this book up years ago at my local library and took it home. I'm so glad I did. On days when there's a cloud over my head, I'm so glad to have this book close by. Some of my favorite poems come from Tess Gallagher (With Stars; I stop writing this poem).