Rev. Gonzaléz, a parish pastor and former Lutheran deaconess, has penned a book
of powerful poetry which faces traumas, from everyday to cataclysmic, that intrude upon our lives.
A timely compilation given the terror-filled moments that have shaped our reality! In these pages encounter:
--the vision of fear and of promise that wakes to consciouness the sleeping soul.
--the pain that brings profound healing.
--the alchemy that arises when human community is touched by the divine.
--inspiring courage to see the world with opened eyes.
--a trembling hope that can still compel the sojourner to venture forth in hope, despite, and because,
of the daily wreckage of life.
REVIEWS:
"If you have felt conflicted by overlapping
emotions in grief, the poem, "Language of Loss," will
assure you that rief can be at once broadly shared, terribly lonely,
and ultimately beautiful." --Bob Komives (Colorado)
"Pam Gonzalez, who lives in northern
Colorado, is a poet and pastor. So it is not surprising to find
spiritual concerns an important aspect of her poetry. Climbing
the Wreckage is a wide-ranging book though with direct observations
of everyday life at home and during visits to Nicaragua. These
are a springboard to sensitive reflections, always captured in
an assured, poetic voice. The poems are challenging, sometimes
difficult, but will repay those prepared to unlock their meaning....
...Two other poems make a particular impression.
"Song of Songs Revisited" is an erotically charged love
poem. It is described in the useful "Notes on the Poetic
Forms" (to be found at the end of the book) as both an acrostic
and found poem. The beginning letter of each line spells out the
hidden message: "Pamela Loves Abelard." It is an emotion
evoked through phrases taken from the Bible's "Song of Songs."
Although this might sound an artificial device it is a poem which
works incredibly well as biblical text becomes personal feeling:
"All beautiful you are my darling; there is no flaw in you."
Another strongly personal poem is "Return to Padre Island"
describing terns, sand crabs and starfish. An original simile
captures the terns: "Practiced beaks snatch mid-air crumbs
/ like toddlers coming to pick my pockets." Starfish are
seen through the eyes of a 5-year old while litter on the beach
is described as "remnants of civilization."
The most significant aspect of the island
though is the poet's own link to the place: "I, too, wash
up again, broken, upon the beach / of this misnomered nursemaid
of my youth."
It is this type of individual stamp that
is characteristic of the whole collection. Pam Gonzalez is an
accomplished poet worthy of further reading.
- Rambles
written by Andy Jurgis
Read the entire review at: www.rambles.net/gonzalez_climbing03.html
Pam's Book of Advent Hymns, set to Christmas Tunes
is here: It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas