Psalms from an Ordinary Woman

Eavann Boland: These poems are written with an energetic eloquence, bent on finding and defining worlds that are often overlooked. Sickness, displacement, late-night musings are all included. The reader will look into this deft language, with its elegy for what is lost, not just as into a poem but as into a mirror. These poems have the ability both to console and to be remembered.William Heyen: Psalms for an Ordinary Woman, through 2-3 readings, more than held my attention-I entered it, it drew me into its voice & personality that came to matter in important ways, & I did not want this book to end. Karla Linn Merrifield: You hold in your hands a book of rare gravitas. From "the controlled wreckage of our lives" to "the cancer of hungry children," Colleen Powderly's PSALMS FROM AN ORDINARY WOMAN grapples honestly with societal horrors, whether poverty and gun violence or misogyny and racism. Yet, despite disability, fear, and a loneliness she holds close, she finds "patience to see stars from different ground"-and ultimately triumphs having also found "the self who prizes beauty" that we, too, may discover it . We learn as she did "you must first belong to yourself." Powderly perhaps describes Psalms best: "This [is a] work of truth & beauty." We, too, are now better equipped to survive any "pulped promise" that comes our way. I am profoundly grateful for her courage and wisdom.