What happens when, in mid-life, a marriage breaks apart and a woman’s home empties of its familiar rituals, and energy patterns, and grids of faith and promise? The poems in Ronna Bloom’s fourth collection, Permiso, follow an ancient trajectory, of psychic displacement, of questions having to do with personal failure, of responsibility, yes, and of an emerging, craning desire, of a search, begun anew, for an Other who just might be Self. Previous books, with dates and publishers: • Public Works – Pedlar 2004, shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award• Personal Effects – Pedlar 2000• Fear of the Ride – Carleton University Press, 1996, shortlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award About the Author: Ronna Bloom is the author of four books of poetry, most recently, Permiso (Pedlar Press, 2009), shortlisted for the Pat Lowther Award. Her poems have been translated into Spanish and Bengali and broadcast on CBC Radio. Her work appeared in "Poetry is Public is Poetry," an initiative of Toronto Poet Laureate Dionne Brand, which showcases and celebrates the work of Canadian poets to help transform Toronto’s public realm into a forum for the written word. Bloom works as a writing teacher and psychotherapist. She has led workshops across Canada and abroad, and currently is Poet in Community at the University of Toronto. www.ronnabloom.com |