I didn't want to stop reading, but I had to sleep. Beautiful to see this writer's life unfold. Joy believes in her visions and sees earth and our universe as pulsing entities very much linked in harmony at every level.
Yet in finishing this book, Joy also showed the injustices of a life growing up in the shadow of racial and gender discrimination, alcoholism, poverty, meanness and hautedness, which does not immediately speak of harmony. I think back to her poem, "Reconcilliation" in stanza 2 where she attests, "Every act of kindness is a light in the war for justice." In being included in her life story through the reading of this book, I can tell she really believes this line she wrote, and it gives me greater hope that poetry and expression can save a soul from bitterness and sickness and turn it toward beauty receptiveness and orchestration in a life that is truly meant to savor at a sensory level.