Those Eternally Linked Lives

“In Those Eternally Linked Lives Judy Hogan’s lines rise and fall in reveries of psalm-like lyrics: ‘Loving you was never easy, but I regret nothing.’ Looking back, letting the words find themselves, Hogan turns love to beauty. Her magnificent hymn sings itself.” ~ Shelby Stephenson, Poet Laureate of North Carolina __________________________________________ “If you’ve ever been afraid to die, read Judy Hogan’s Those Eternally Linked Lives. Here, in 30 deft poems, we are carried along with Hogan as she encounters loss, aging, and illness. But she comes through it all with such grace and humility, we are left breathless with delight and hope. Hogan clearly believes in poetry as revelation: ‘The human spirit has been here before. We know how to die if we have to.’” ~ Joanie McLean, author of Place and Up From Dust _______________________________________________ “Judy Hogan reminds us over and over again that we need to put our egos to rest and simply serve the poem. Those Eternally Linked Lives allows the reader to bear witness through a graceful but intentional lens; allowing only the right images to filter through. This collection of gentle poems bear and wear their craft lightly but deliver identifiable truths. They offer questions and subtle declarations; a wellspring of good medicine for all of our hearts. Startlingly transparent and sensuously opaque all at once, these poems are rooted deeply in the soil of the natural world and the celebration of the everydayness of living.” ~ Jaki Shelton Green, Dead on Arrival and New Poems, Masks, Conjure Blues; 2009 Piedmont Poet Laureate