Cynthia Sharp's collection begins with an invitation to accompany her on a journey of healing, even as we grapple with the very real threat of global ecological collapse. She explores with clear-eyed honesty the way we inherit from former generations both our strengths and the environmental degradation that threatens our very existence. Although there is real urgency in the present moment, Sharp's poems don't lead the reader into a mindset of panic and fear. Rather, she reflects on the lessons of the pandemic, how "we're all ordinary these days" and have been given an opportunity to slow down and witness the marvelous connections in creation and previously unimagined possibilities for healing ourselves and nature. In this simpler monk-like existence we can learn to breathe again, as do the lines of her poems.
Sharp's attention to color, how she carefully notes hues and variations of shades and light, becomes a meditation in itself. Peach and pear are colors of morning in this "mysticism of color". Her poems often begin with a sense of domestic intimacy as in beginning the day by donning a "coral Italian silk blouse" with "pink petals" in her hair, a fitting garb for opening to "starlight/in royal blue skies", an expanding universe, and awareness of the sacredness of an individual life.
There is a strong sense of feminine energy in these poems, and Sharp describes her relationship with her grandmother as a "communion of being". Right to the last poem there is the possibility of going through a "dreamtime" portal, acknowledging our own ephemeral condition with its aches and pains (both physical and existential) and being present to a higher frequency.
Cynthia Sharp holds an MFA in creative writing and an Honors BA in English literature. She is a full member of the League of Canadian Poets, was the WIN Vancouver 2022 Poet Laureate and was one of the judges for the Pandora's Collective 2020 International Poetry Contest. Her fiction, poetry, reviews and creative nonfiction have been published and broadcast internationally in journals such as CV2, Prism, Quills, Pocket Lint and untethered and nominated for the Pushcart prize. Cynthia served two years on the executive of the Federation of British Columbia Writers and was the City of Richmond's 2019 Writer in Residence. She recently completed graduate studies in ecopoetry in Washington State, where she was on the editorial team of The Pitkin Review. She is the author of 'The Light Bearers in the Sand Dollar Graviton' and 'Rainforest in Russet' available worldwide.
