Cathedral

by Pamela Porter

This collection of poems takes us on a journey — a very personal journey of Pamela Porter's own — to Africa and South America, those corners of the world the news reports never seem to to Angola's thirty-year-long civil war, a landscape overrun with poverty, AIDS, and infant mortality; and to the struggles of ordinary people still haunted by the past horrors of Argentina's “dirty war.” With language deceptively simple, filled with music, colour and rich detail, Porter writes with grace and compassion, making a fierce beauty from all she sees, celebrating the resilience of the poor and oppressed, who nonetheless remain determined to live their lives with dignity and with joy. Whitman said, “I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded person.” In reading these poems, Porter's journey to “become the wounded person” becomes our own — as freshly as though we have travelled with her. Winner of the Governor General's Award for The Crazy Man, Pamela Porter has given us another book to treasure, one that takes us into the heart of what it means to be a human being on this earth.

101 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 15, 2010

About the author

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on July 14, 1956, Pamela Porter of Sidney, B.C., has also lived in Texas, Louisiana, Washington, and Montana. Her husband's family has operated a family farm near Weyburn, Saskatchewan, for generations, and Pamela’s family goes to Saskatchewan every summer to work on the farm.

Having gained her undergraduate English degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas and her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana, Pamela Porter has taught writing at the University of Victoria and to adults at the tribal school on the Saanich peninsula.

Reviews

[Lesley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful