A Wound on Stone

Winner of the 2001 Perugia Press Prize, A Wound On Stone by Faye George reflects the emotional history of a woman who grew up during the Great Depression and World War II, knowing many forms of political and personal hardship. Taken together the poems tell the story of coming to terms with loss and are a cry to regain meaning and personal identity. A Wound On Stone ends with the paradoxical understanding that although they may never heal, "wounds wear out." One must go on, not with hope's illusions, but with a bitterly won and liberating consciousness. These are poems of keen observation by a woman longing to be more than just an observer.

George uses haunting, evocative images that move from passionate and open to tight and hushed, particularly the image of a mother wrapping a child in a blanket of nettles. A Wound On Stone is an elegantly presented book filled with magical language and apt references to mythology.

Faye George's poems have appeared in The Paris Review, Poetry, The Amicus Journal, Yankee, and many other anthologies and journals. Born in 1933, George worked as radio copywriter, public relations representative in human services and municipal government, academic secretary, and in a variety of other jobs over the years. She makes her home in Bridgewater, MA. A Wound On Stone is her first book-length volume of poetry.