<p>These poems take us on a woman’s journey through time and experience to self realisation and maturity. The ancient Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone provides the lens to help us see the depth and timelessness of the female quest.</p>
<p>At some level the poems explore the counterpointing of experience- Persephone and Demeter are one and the same and all the phases of our lives are part of who we are now. At another level Persephone lives between two mutually exclusive worlds, that of Hades and that of Demeter, where the duality of light and darkness is explored as a principle of transformation. Many poems trace how our insights come, and how memory functions in shaping our lives.</p>
<p>Though not autobiographical, this book is deeply personal. The lyric tenderness of the writing draws us into a sensitive and honed consciousness of what it means, what it has always meant, to be a woman.</p>
<p><strong>Mary Madec </strong>is Director of Villanova University’s Study Abroad Program in Ireland. Her first collection, <em>In Other Words</em>, was published by Salmon Poetry in 2010.</p>