Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Women on Ash Wednesday

I've been listening to (reading) some strong women's voices this morning, so I thought I'd share a few of them with you on this Ash Wednesday, also the Hump of the Week in the blog, as we sometimes need a little push over that hump of the week to make it through, and it's always good to ponder what is meant by "ashes to ashes, dust to dust," and so on.

So here's a mini-review of Karen J. Weyant's new chapbook, Wearing Heels in the Rust Belt, sometimes a dusty place, just posted at Escape Into Life, with art (there and here) by Casey Weldon.

Here are two poems and a brief meditation on Ash Wednesday by Kristin Berkey-Abbott.

Here are a couple of reviews (by women, one of them me) of chapbooks by women, To the Husband I Have Not Met Yet, by Mary Kathryn Jablonski, reviewed by Mary Ellen Geer, and Saint Monica, by Mary Biddinger (short review in right-hand column), over at Fiddler Crab Review. Wait! Isn't that three Marys?!

A Downton Abbey-esque meditation on maids and ladies, lovely things and sturdy things, at synch-ro-ni-zing.

And a silent message, on listening...from Molly Spencer, on her "wordless Wednesday."

I'll be thinking about all this, and reading Marilynne Robinson's Absence of Mind, over at my mom's house, drying the laundry, as, of course, our dryer broke to celebrate the Hump of the Week.

7 comments:

Kim said...

Is that new Marilyn Robinson? Or another book of hers from the past that I missed?

Kathleen said...

It's a book of essays, subtitled The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self, and is from a set of lectures she gave in a series called The Dwight Harrington Terry Foundation Lectures on Religion in the Light of Science and Philosophy. Riveting writing and thought, deeply rooted in real knowledge of her subject matter. She actually reads stuff!

Hannah Stephenson said...

That art is stunning...thanks so much for sharing it with us!

Maureen said...

Thank you for the link to Kristin's. Wonderful Ash Wednesday poems. Ruth's post, as always, is beautiful. And I'm looking forward to reading "Wearing Heels in the Rust Belt", which came a few days ago.

Kathleen said...

Thanks, Hannah and Maureen.

Kristin Berkey-Abbott said...

Thank you so much for all the links. I'm honored to be amongst such good company.

Kathleen said...

Kristin, thank YOU for those poems and thought.

And Kim, I forgot to say the book is from 2010.

I'm still riveted. She's having a little problem with some of E. O. Wilson's ideas, but I think if they got together and talked it over, they'd work it out! Marilynne Robinson will be at the AWP conference I'm attending next week!