Story Circle Review and Poem For Pele

The lovely review of Crazing just published in Story Circle Book Reviews begins: “Ruth Thompson’s third volume of poetry looks at aging through lenses of nature—drought ravages, fragments of a decayed fish—gently showing the human mind dropping pieces, the human body changing shape. Taking shape often looks like losing shape; we are called here to trust the process of continual renewal, not knowing in the moment what shape is forming.

None of us comes
to destroy.
We come
to take shape.“

The quote is from “Poem for Pele.” Here is the poem in full.

Poem For Pele

Rivers of rain
rivers of fire
rivers of salt
are one river.

Red words pour
from gapethroat
fly like black crows
from the crown.

Hard black
spitting up
made the chinker field
of self.

From beneath miles
of ocean
the mountain
of this moment.

None of us comes
to destroy.
We come
to take shape.