Via Lactea: A Woman of a Certain Age Walks the Camino

by Ellen Waterston, Ron Schultz (Illustrator)

Following in the footsteps of thousands of pilgrims, penitents, and seekers over centuries, in 2012 Ellen Waterston walked the sacred ground of Spain's Camino de Santiago in search of answers to "What's next?" questions, a quest prompted by stepping down after 11 years as founder/director of a literary arts nonprofit. The list of life questions Waterston was certain she would resolve was quickly supplanted by what the Camino had in mind. Upon her return to Oregon, sorting through mementos of the trip, she was struck by a map of the ten Camino routes that converge in Santiago. The image of a woman leaping rose from the map and Camino Woman was born. This fictional character is the embodiment of all holy women marginalized by patriarchal religions, and spawned other characters, including a fictionalized peregrina of a certain age," a stylized and profane Catholic church in Father Tomas, an omniscient third-person voice, the role of the hospitalero as wisdom keeper, and caricatures of others met along the way. The title of the book has its origins in the fact that the Camino is often referred to as the Via Lactea, a reference to the fact that the Milky Way is always overhead when walking the Camino. Via Lactea is a verse novel, with a storyline that threads through it. It includes many styles and forms of poetry including free verse, new forms, and traditional ones-such as the haibun, described as terse prose usually ending with a haiku. The haibun is often associated with travel writings. Another form, the tanka, is sometimes referred to as "short song." Its meter and shape on the page both mimicked the robotic action, day after day, of walk, eat, sleep, walk some more, and the isolation Waterston sometimes felt on the trail. Another form, the ghazal, is built of couplets and repetitions. For Waterston, its form mirrored the constant rain, day after day, while on the Camino.

70 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2013

Reviews

[Patricia L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favourite collection of poems ever.

The poems follow many forms and each form speaks to what the poem is saying.

I am a hiker, not so much a spiritual seeker to walk the Camino but the author too plays with religious beliefs. "Today, God is in my sore hip, God"

This is a treasure book with pictures too.

The honesty in the words of the poems opens the door to new feelings. While I couldn’t appreciate the religion sown within the experience I did appreciate the poet's approach to it. Immediate, present full of care and craftful and experimental. Oh the book is so treasured. 

[Kathy Duffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very different styles of poems, along with varying topics but centered on walking the pilgrims route to Santiago. An unusual read but interesting with some excellent drawings. From seeking to physical discomforts of this long pilgrimage, the poet Ellen Waterston has conjured up some images and poems that will stay with you.

[Julene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Via Lactea—A Woman of a Certain Age Walks the Camino was actually made into an opera. It is a collection that Ellen Waterston wrote after her pilgrimage walking the Camino on a quest to start her life new. She calls it her 'slate-cleaning walk'. She did not originally intend to write a book, but she kept a journal through the walk and on her return looking at the information she had gathered and on one the brochures was a picture of a woman jumping and characters started forming in her mind, the peregrina, the Camino woman, Father Tomas and the lore of the milky way, which has a long history and story that they are the dust stirred by the many walkers.

As I mentioned, Via Lactea has been scripted and composed into an opera that was performed this year (2016) in Bend, OR. I met the author last year at a writing retreat where I learned about this project, unfortunately, I was not able to attend but have heard it was very beautiful. From the beginning Via Lactea is totally gripping. It is contemporary and engaging. She has a preamble section that is her preparing for the trip before starting the walk: shopping for a cell phone, passport, and going broke with the high tech clothing she needs to pack light. She questions, "I'd phoenixed before, but how many more fresh starts did I have?" Note in the title it is, A Woman of a Certain Age who is taking this journey.

Understanding it's many voices, which she sets up well in the opening, I read with joy the many deep questioning, and humorous poems of an American on such a journey. Lonely at times, the expected hardships of weather conditions, and meeting an assortment of characters along the way. It made me want to walk a pilgrimage, too. She sums up in the final poem, Make Believe, "Your prayer is written within/the within of you. The space/between each of you-word/is where heaven abides. Petitioning/a distant deity is a waste of time./Prayer is a reporting, a telling./Every day, if you can, turn more/and more inside-out so the you-/prayer is exposed to more and more light."

I strongly recommend this book to any seeker, and aren't we all seeking?

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poetic journey into the "what next" of life, walking the Camino. I loved this!