Overview

WATERS RISING, Poems from the Red Well by the Sisters of the Holy Pen. This gripping book of poetry was created by a group of California women writers who call themselves, unofficially, the Sisters of the Holy Pen: Verne Adams, Donna Blethen, Kathy Carlson, Pamela Eakins, Mercy Hopkins, Elizabeth Terraszas, Bella Tièr, and Maia Whitemare. The writers' use of the word "holy" indicates how important the act and revelatory nature of writing is in each of their lives. The poems, composed in a writing workshop, began as quick, five to ten minute sketches. To set the creative juices in motion and to hone writing skills, the writers drew a handful of words out of the Red Well, a bowl full with hundreds of words. They pulled out the words, arranged them quickly, and began to write whatever emerged from the deep, subconscious realm. This practice of "writing from the gut" unleashes raw intuition: undomesticated, unobscured, and ungroomed. The poetry floods like a creative spring. Pamela Eakins, writing teacher and the editor of WATERS RISING, says, "All we know and all we are, all that is embedded in our personal and cultural lives, ends up flowing into our poems from the combined and recombined words we are working with. Then, as we read our poetry aloud to one another, without comment, just sharing, we bear witness, again and again, to the power and distinctive nature of each of our voices. As we write and as we listen, we can feel our inner and outer worlds shifting by degrees. Thus, this practice not only strengthens our skills as writers, but becomes a healing process in our lives." WATERS RISING is a book of inspiration. It not only draws the reader into the Sisters' provocative poetry, but it invites the reader to enter into her own "from the soul" creativity. Read WATERS RISING, join in the process of these California women writers, and feel hidden aspects of your own soul surging into view. The poetry of your life will become rich with meaning as the profound sense of your own purpose is symbolically unveiled.