Being of a certain age, Carol Lynn Pearson has always spoken to me. I remember stumbling over her first book of poems, Beginnings--how luminous! And then, oh, "Mother Wove the Morning"! I got to see her in this one-woman play at a public performance at a school in Orem. I was deeply, deeply moved. I think I even managed to call her and thank her for that. I read one of her autobiographical books, and was heartbroken for her and her children. I use two of the poems in Day-Old Child in my graduate class. And those fantastic little books, like "The Lesson"--just loved them! I read The Ghost of Polygamy, of course, and it resonated with me. And then, 2020, just as lockdown hit, I discovered she had published another book of poems, this time all about Heavenly Mother, entitled Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World. Of course, I instantly ordered it.
There are some really great poems in this collection (and a few that didn't move me). There are a few I feel to share with readers over time. Here's one to start:
TOWARD ZION
You can pick up a shovel and dig
across the entire acreage of patriarchy
and you will not find one gold nugget
not one buried treasure
not on ehidden spring.
This is a brown and barren land.
It is good for one thing
purposed well by history:
to travel over by foot
women and men together
arms around each other
walking, dancing, hurrying
following the scent of milk and honey
toward the promised land of partnership
a Zion discerned in the distance by the joyful
duet of the shofar and the tambourine
and then drawing close enough to see
the everywhere
of irrepressible green.
Oh, I just really savor that poem! It speaks to me of the barren feeling I sometimes got, especially in the past, when the Church seemed so "off" on women's issues to the point where Church practices seemed to clash with Church doctrine. I think we are in a greener period, but there is still a ways to go. And yet in this space and this time, men and women can find each other and lock arms in partnership and walk towards a better world in that way. This is a poem to remember; this is a poem that refreshes. Many thanks to the poet for it!