Grief Sweat - Softcover

Aliesan, Jody

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0913089192 ISBN 13: 9780913089194

Publisher: Broken Moon Press, 1991

all you hoard must be given away/
what you want most the one thing/
you cannot have or only/
through sacrifice of some cherished part of you/
two small mourners come to listen while you suffer/
but with no advice nothing to be done/

from seven gates through the underworld

Grief sweat is the cleansing ordeal of a sweating hut in time of pain or loss, a ritual shared by First Nation and traditional Irish people. The book is a shred of paper left under a stone in the desert; a map of the territory drawn by somebody who was there.

The poems and fables in it come from what is called "anxious clinical depression," a pale phrase to anyone who has suffered through that life-threatening torment. After the poem "dark angel" finished itself I said, "People are going to think this is an exaggeration. But it’s only a report." The coyote stories are not fiction; gender and species were changed so I could bear to tell them.

The first section was written during emergence—as a record, as a checklist, and in solidarity with my comrades in mental illness who find in all the literature about that country very little word from the travelers themselves. The last section speaks out of the center of the whirlwind, which blew for about two and a half years. I dedicate this book to all those who recognize the landscape. Stay alive; you will get out. —Jody Aliesan

Grief Sweat received a New Works grant from the King County Arts Commission. Published by Broken Moon, Grief Sweat is now being provided by Blue Begonia Press.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

April Fools Day/good Friday/first Day Of Passover
Aurora
Beltane
Betrayal
Candlemas: Late Nor'easter
Dark Angel (1)
Dark Angel (2)
Depression
Divination
Entrance
Equinox
Fable
Falling Out
Fate
February Light
For Yourself Only
Grace
Grace
How Coyote Found Some Peace
How Coyote Learned What He Needed Most
Listen: 1
Listen: 2
Listen: 3
Omens
Out Of Sumer
Patience
Return (the Turning Point)
Seven Gates Through The Underworld 1
Seven Gates Through The Underworld 2
Seven Gates Through The Underworld 3
Seven Gates Through The Underworld 4
Seven Gates Through The Underworld 5
Seven Gates Through The Underworld 6
Seven Gates Through The Underworld 7
Sitting Next To Ruins Watching Swallows Build A Nest
Summer Solstice
Thank You Even For This
Thursday
Traveler
Uath/six Years
Unified Field Theory
What Travels Fast As Speed Of Light
Why Coyote Has A Haunted Look
Winter Solstice
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder�

Jody Aliesan's Grief Sweat plunges into the obsessive despair of betrayat love lost, and personal terror. But Aliesan knows that for art, descent ~s only half the journey. She gives herself over to the underworld, but crawls back to the surface, to act out the rituals of grief and of healing. In the books's final poem, "Unified Field Theory," a woman returns from emotional paralysis and debilitating anger to share newly-found warmth with the whole planet. The poem begins at dawn on water between two unlit islands, pays homage to passion, the sun, and antimilitarism. Then the poem leaps to the story of a little Asian boy who volunteers to give blood to save a playmate injured by bombs dropped on their playground: "he/shook sobs tears streaming his fist in his mouth1wbats wrong interpreter asked turned out/he thought he was dying to save her lifelwby would be do that the medics wondered1lbecause sbe's my friend/I ... it's a force/in the universe too it must be distributed." This book moves from the obliteration of self during blistering grief to the willing giving over of self that restores the capacity to love. "sitting next to ruins/watching swallows build a nest" offers a quiet testimonial to faith. "April Fool's Day/Good Friday/First Day of Passover" even in its title shows the poet's renewed awareness of the intricate connections between people, spiritual cycles, and seemingly disparate points of view. Lines of the poem interweave with quotations from a scholar of the Holocaust, a critic, an angel, Buddha ("we have very little time left/therefore we must proceed slowly), and a chemist ("I have had my conclusions for a long time/but I do not yet know how to reach them").We enter this book by falling into a branch of the tree of life, then continue by tagging along as Coyote, a reshaped trickster hammered down by sorrow, leads us into the depths of grief. In the rest of the book, the soul rebuilds itself, and begins once again to recognize joy and absurdity. In "Beltane" the poet writes "if we need meaning we must make it for ourselves/it's best to remember we made it/lest we take it too seriously." -- From Independent Publisher

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