Claiming the Spirit Within: A Sourcebook of Women's Poetry

by Marilyn Sewell (Editor)

More than three hundred poems celebrate the sacredness of women's lives, from the experiences that shape women and their relationships to their legacy, and includes contributions by such writers as Margaret Atwood, Nikki Giovanni, Louise Erdrich, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Alice Walker. Reprint.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, Faith, Feminism, Womens

368 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1996

About the author

Marilyn Sewell has 10 books in print, including the ground-breaking anthology of women's spiritual poetry, "Cries of the Spirit." Marilyn writes for the spirituality section of Huffington Post. She on the adjunct faculty at Attic Institute, a resource center for writers in Portland, OR, and also teaches at Maitripa, a Buddhist college in Portland. She is the subject of a prize-winning documentary film, "Raw Faith." Her newest book is a memoir, "Raw Faith: Following the Thread," which gives the back story to the film. Marilyn is the Minister Emerita of the First Unitarian Church of Portland, OR, where she served for 17 years as Senior Minister. She lives on the Willamette River with her husband and her cat Molly.

Reviews

[Bo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-curated collection of women's poetry. On themes such as identity, defiance, the body, blessings, mothering, aging, work, compassion... 350+ pages of poetry.

[Julie Jordan Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first stumbled upon this book when I was taking a course about Women's History of the United States at a local community college. At that point I didn't own a lot of poetry collections, but this book served as a launching pad to many other books I now own and recommend.

The poems were carefully selected and cover a wide range of poetry styles.

From a poem about an aerobics class to a poem about Margaret Fuller giving birth in Italy to a poem titled "Poet's Manual" by Alice Friman and "For Those Whom the Gods Love Less" by Denise Levertov this is truly a treasury of must read poems.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extensive anthology of poetry by women, including most of the masters of the last half of the 20th century--Atwood, Levertov, Dove, Kumin, Swenson, Sexton, Forche, Grahn, Kenyon. The book is divided into themes, into which perhaps, another reader would place the poems differently. Some of the themes: Generations, identity, birth, defiance, the body, simple blessings, mothering, work, and--you knew it was coming--illness and death. Nonetheless, there is a wide variety of poems by a wide variety of women with craft. What's not to like?

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry is meaningful and complex. Definitely a book to be indulged. I borrowed this from the library and will do so again when I am looking for a refresher in women's poetry.

[Aggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good collection

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very strong and diverse collection.

[d4]

Last two chapters were mangled--pages repeated, etc. wtf, editing.