Yonder Side and Quiddity at the International Interdisciplinary Symposium on Women and Spirituality
The beautiful Regennia Nanette Williams spearheaded this conference at Cleveland State University, which turned out to be a splendid opportunity to connect with Patricia Monaghan, whose work I came across a year or so after a conversation with Jessie Lendennie at Salmon Poetry on the Cliffs of Moher in County Clare.
I was pubtending in Doolin at the time I met Jessie, who in addition to founding Salmon Poetry, rescues animals large and small, sharing her time and windy hilltop home with them. She was gracious in sharing her home and time with me for an afternoon as well, and I recall fondly getting to know the books and animals fortunate beyond measure to land at the two-storey green farmhouse atop Knockeven in Clare.
Monaghan’s collection of poetry housed there is titled Dancing with Chaos and is described by the publisher a literary and scientific dance, “inspired by metaphors drawn from chaos theory and quantum mechanics. Mathematics can graph the heart’s chaotic rhythm, but this poetry moves with that rhythm.” Her work at Black Earth Institute echoes the stewardship for the earth and its living entities exemplified by Salmon Poetry.
