Season of Mercy
- Publisher
- Nightwood Editions
- Initial publish date
- Jan 1999
- Category
- Canadian, General, NON-CLASSIFIABLE
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780889711686
- Publish Date
- Jan 1999
- List Price
- $11.95
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Out of print
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Description
Season of Mercy explores the different "seasons" of spiritual life and examines issues of faith and responsibility. This evocative collection charts the passage of the soul through time, from the darkness of despair to the awakening and understanding of one's own caling and vocation. "A long battle of constellations we are,/ clinging clandestinely/ to light after light/ swinging back into darkness/ once more into mercy."
Skillfully drawing on myth, nature, biblical themes, and her own experience as a writer and mother, Ito weaves a philosophic and poetic landscape from which the world can be comprehended with grace and compassion.
This second volume of poems by award-winning Sally Ito follows her successful debut Frogs in the Rain Barrel, which was runner-up for the Milton Acorn's People's Poetry Award. Season of Mercy explores the different seasons and issues surrounding faith and responsibility; from the darkness of despair to the awakening and understanding of one's own calling and vocation. Skillfully drawing on myth, biblical themes, the natural world, and her own experiences as a mother and writer, Ito weaves a philosophic and poetic landscape, commenting on the necessity of viewing the world around us with mercy, compassion and faith.
Touching on each of the four seasons, Ito addresses a vast range of subjects and muses - including adultery, Good Friday, rape by water, prayer, seahorses and the allure of floating islands. The poetry is rich, the language alive with allusion and metaphor.
About the author
Sally Ito was born in Taber, Alberta and grew up in Edmonton and the Northwest Territories. She studied at the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta, and travelled on scholarship to Japan, where she translated Japanese poetry. Her first book of poems, Frogs in the Rain Barrel (Nightwood, 1995) was runner-up for the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award. Her second book, Floating Shore (Mercury Press), won the Writers Guild of Alberta Book Award for short fiction, and was shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Literary Prize and the City of Edmonton Book Prize. Her work has appeared in numerous periodicals such as Grain, Matrix and the Capilano Review and in the anthologies Breathing Fire: Canada's New Poets and Poets 88. Ito lives in Edmonton with her husband and son.
Excerpt: Season of Mercy (by (author) Sally Ito)
A Season of Mercy
A season of mercy
has been granted us,
this long time now -
history
by crucifixion
has always demanded patience.
House after house
has been built on the shore,
the same fishermen fishing seas
for the One man who spoke to them
from the water.
Some are tired of waiting;
some have lain down to die,
but still others persist
with dew in their eyes
so that even I must turn
this time now
to face Him at last
mercy's desire
granted.
Salt
Suddenly salt has lost its savour.
Love and all that it meant
is now a fragment of a bowl
no longer capable of holding water
but of only the caked white reflection -
a self, distorted and wan
weary with lines of knowing,
scarred with wounds that have truly savoured,
and known no other cleansing.
