And it fell to us to preserve
one cell of every living thing—
growing on the earth,
swimming in the sea,
flying toward the sun.
And it fell to us to make maps,
record the journey of rivers
with posthumous blue lines.
We used to wrap ourselves in knowing,
mouthing words as if we grasped
their meaning. Now we cry out,
not for prophets,
but for a time called future,
in its exquisite uncertainty.
From “Perennial” in Point of Attachment
(Finishing Line Press)
Ann Bookman, poet, teacher, social justice advocate.
Bookman has been studying poetry for twenty years with Boston area poets and in residential workshops at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. Her poems have been published in Chronogram, Larcom Review, Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose, and Soul-Lit: A Journal of Spiritual Poetry, among others. In 2012 she published a chapbook, Point of Attachment, with Finishing Line Press. Her first full collection, Blood Lines, was published by Kelsay Books in 2022.
New Collection Now Available!
From Kelsay Books
Watch the Book Launch Event, hosted by Kelsay Books on 3/31/22, here:
Blood Lines
Ann Bookman’s new collection, Blood Lines, is both a family history and an inquiry into genetics and our social environment, interrogating the tension between fate and randomness. The narrative element is captured in a series of prose poems about women in her maternal line who carry a genetic mutation associated with a highly elevated risk of breast and ovarian cancer (the BRCA gene). The point of departure is her struggle to embrace life fully while navigating a deep channel of uncertainty and anxiety. This volume uncovers the resilient strength of unseen connections and inheritance across five generations of Ashkenazi women.
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