Noticing Eden: Poems

Southern Scribe
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Poetry Review

Noticing Eden: Poems
by Marjory Heath Wentworth
Hub City Writers Project, 2003
Trade paper, $12.95 (83 pages)
ISBN: 1-891885-34-0

South Carolina Poet Laureate Marjory Heath Wentworth draws on images of time and nature of the Lowcountry for her collection Noticing Eden. The Lowcountry is a garden of color and the movements of small creatures. Yet, it is also the wrath of God as a hurricane approaches. Wentworth captures the calming moments and the turmoil of emotions as nature attacks.

The collection closes with a selection she wrote for the Inauguration of Mark Sanford as Governor of South Carolina entitled "Rivers of Wind"...

Seeds of hope are waiting

in the sacred soil beneath our feet

and in the light and in the shadows,

spinning below the hemlocks.

Hope waits in the endless

waterfalls tumbling toward earth,

transforming into rivers

that pull us through embattled centuries.

Hope waits for the waters

to still and the currents

to empty themselves of the blood

that came before.

Hope waits for a day like today.

Marjory Heath Wentworth teaches poetry in "Expressions of Healing" -- an arts and healing program for cancer patients and their families. She also teaches creative writing at the Charleston County School of Arts. She lives on Sullivan's Island with her husband Peter and their three sons.

The book cover art is Marsh Grass by renown Gullah artist Jonathan Green.

Joyce Dixon
Southern Scribe Reviews