Cries of the Spirit: A Celebration of Women's Spirituality

by Marilyn Sewell

This rich and diverse sourcebook of poetry and prose celebrates women's spirituality in its many forms and is dedicated, above all, to the sacredness of the ordinary, to embodied life.

More than three hundred poems and a few prose pieces by modern writers such as Maya Angelou, Annie Dillard, Denise Levertov, Marge Piercy, and Alice Walker, and earlier writers such as Hildegard of Bingen and Margaret Fuller, offer new insights into the realm of the spirit. Here women's voices fill the traditional silence about matters central to women's experience, from menstruation, sexual intimacy, and childbirth to cooking, caretaking, and household rituals to miscarriage, death, and lesser losses. The writings collected in this anthology represent a healing vision of the sacred that emerges from the particular consciousness of women—a vision that is life-giving and partakes of the world of earth and flesh.

Organized thematically, Cries of the Spirit can be used as a sourcebook for public rituals, group gatherings, or personal reflection.


Owning self. Unlearning to not speak ; The woman in the ordinary / Marge Piercy --
Shameless hussy (excerpt) / Alta --
Woman and nature (excerpt) / Susan Griffin --
Variation on a theme by Rilke ; Stepping westward / Denise Levertov --
The poem as mask / Muriel Rukeyser --
Outrage / Lucille Iverson --
Woman in the nineteenth century (excerpt) / Margaret Fuller --
Offspring / Naomi Long Madgett --
Now I become myself / May Sarton --
I am running into a new year / Lucille Clifton --
Listen / Linda Lancione Moyer --
Lilith and the doctor / Kathleen Norris --
The journey / Mary Oliver --
The irises / Jeanne Foster --
Blue morning glory / Anne Pitkin --
Housing shortage / Naomi Replansky --
Aging (balm for a 27th birthday) / Erica Jong --
Advice / Ruth Stone. The imperative of intimacy. Prayer for revolutionary love / Denise Levertov --
Out of my time (excerpt) / Marya Mannes --
Councils / Marge Piercy --
To have without holding / Marge Piercy --
Paris and Helen / Judy Grahn --
Pornography and silence (excerpt) / Susan Griffin --
Growing together / Joyce Carol Oates --
After love / Maxine Kumin --
A thought / Linda Hogan --
New mother / Sharon Olds --
Dancing the shout to the true gospel or The song Movement sisters don't want me to sing / Rita Mae Brown --
Late autumn / May Sarton --
The way towards each other / Jeni Couzyn --
Blossom / Mary Oliver --
To drink / Jane Hirshfield --
Medicine ; Love is not concerned / Alice Walker --
The hug / Tess Gallagher --
Nikki-Rosa / Nikki Giovanni --
Feast Day (excerpt) / Ellen Bryant Voigt --
Ironing their clothes / Julia Alvarez --
7:3 ; 2:7 (excerpts) / Alta --
The big heart / Anne Sexton --
Centering (excerpt) / Mary Caroline Richards. Mothering. Advent / Kathleen Norris --
Early morning woman / Joy Harjo --
Poems for the new / Kathleen Fraser --
Magnificat / Chana Bloch --
The wife takes a child / Ellen Bryant Voigt --
Birth / George Ella Lyon --
Rising to meet it / Chana Bloch --
Now that I am forever with child / Audre Lorde --
The network of the imaginary mother (2 excerpts) / Robin Morgan --
Lorelei / Alta --
Unspoken / Judith Ortiz Cofer --
Happy Birthday / Alicia Ostriker --
Mothers, daughters / Shirley Kaufman --
The bad mother / Susan Griffin --
Black mother woman / Audre Lorde --
February 13, 1980 / Lucille Clifton --
One writer's beginnings (excerpt) / Eudora Welty --
The measure of my days (excerpt) / Florida Scott-Maxwell --
Mother / Sharon Mayer Libera --
Each bird walking / Tess Gallagher --
35/10 / Sharon Olds. Generations. Dandelion greens / Jane Flanders --
Keeping hair / Ramona Wilson --
Matmiya / Mary TallMountain --
For two who slipped away almost entirely / Alice Walker --
Legacies / Nikki Giovanni --
Whitecaps / Betsy Sholl --
Lineage / Margaret Walker --
Poem to my grandmother in her death / Michele Murray --
Five poems for grandmothers (excerpt) / Margaret Atwood --
Spring fragments (excerpt) / Betsy Sholl --
Prologue (excerpt) / Audre Lorde --
Poem at thirty-nine / Alice Walker --
The envelope / Maxine Kumin --
Eggs ; The moment / Sharon Olds --
Three sweatshop women / Nanying Stella Wong --
A poem about faith / Kathleen Norris --
The will's love / Besmilr Brigham --
What is repeated, what abides / Barbara Hendryson --
Elegy / Maya Angelou. Death and lesser losses. The mother / Gwendolyn Brooks --
Ten years ago / Eileen Moeller --
Unborn child elegy (excerpt) ; Country woman elegy / Margaret Gibson --
Flowers / Kathleen Fraser --
104 ; 3:1 / Alta --
My grandfather / Joanne Hotchkiss --
Lynn / Jeanne Foster --
Easter, 1968 / May Sarton --
What hell is / Heather McHugh --
Mama Rosanna's last bead-clack / Laurel Speer --
Lament / Edna St. Vincent Millay --
"Goodnight, Willie Lee, I'll see you in the morning" / Alice Walker --
Finding the lamb (excerpt) / Rebecca Newth --
Aunt Lucy / Jane Gentry --
Apples / Shirley Ka...

Genres: Poetry, Spirituality, Womens, Anthologies, Feminism, Religion, Nonfiction

311 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1991

About the author

Marilyn Sewell has 10 books in print, including the ground-breaking anthology of women's spiritual poetry, "Cries of the Spirit." Marilyn writes for the spirituality section of Huffington Post. She on the adjunct faculty at Attic Institute, a resource center for writers in Portland, OR, and also teaches at Maitripa, a Buddhist college in Portland. She is the subject of a prize-winning documentary film, "Raw Faith." Her newest book is a memoir, "Raw Faith: Following the Thread," which gives the back story to the film. Marilyn is the Minister Emerita of the First Unitarian Church of Portland, OR, where she served for 17 years as Senior Minister. She lives on the Willamette River with her husband and her cat Molly.

Reviews

[Winter Sophia Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring, Moving, Encouraging, Enlightening & Priceless! A Powerful Read! I Loved It!

[Karyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of poetry--don't be fooled by the sappy title. I found this book on a clearance shelf in college, and it's one of the ten books I'd never part with. I find a new poem to love every time I open the book.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has been a very worthwhile read with poetry and excerpts from prose written by well-known female writers. I marked lines and pieces I liked throughout the book as when Eudora Welty commented about her mother’s feelings about her chosen career: “. . . I think she was relieved when I chose to be a writer of stories, for she thought writing was safe.” (p. 76) Mary Caroline Richards writes: “Love is not a doctrine, Peace is not an international agreement. Love and Peace are beings who live as possibilities in us.” (p. 59) Perhaps of all the writers included though, I was most inspired by Alice Walker. Her little poem, “Goodnight, Willie Lee, I’ll See You in the Morning” (pp 114-15) about the healing that comes from forgiveness is wonderful and the excerpt included from “The Color Purple” (pp 256-57) where Shug explains who God is reminds me that this is a book I need to search out and read. I’ve seen the movie, but never read her book. I marked so many places in “Cries Of The Spirit,” I’ll definitely be referring to it again and again. I recommend it to all believers in a higher power.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful poetry anthology! Most useful, in my mind, is a subject index with everything from the very specific -- masectomy, miscarriage, Immaculate Conception -- to the vastly broad -- self-identity, poverty, peace. I return to this quite often, along with its companion volume of sorts, Claiming the Spirit Within.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first bought this volume in the early 2000s, and back then I never read it straight through but just dipped in and out. I still had some bookmarks from that time where I'd mark poems I especially liked. Honestly my favorites after reading the whole book are mostly the same, though there's one with a bit of a clever, snarky ending that I don't appreciate as much as I did in my 20s.

[Sunny :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The introductory essay does a disservice to this collection and what it achieves! I expected TERFy poems and framing, and thankfully that's not what I got in these selections. The framing and selections were expansive and potentially resonant with all sorts of lived experiences.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

this anthology was gifted to me by my sister tracy after she read it in a college course. though i was only 13 the first time i read selected poems, the anthology remains one of my favorites.

sewell is fearless in confronting issues surrounding women's lives. from the physical (the ravages upon the female body over time), to the mental (the discipline and determination it takes to keep a family together), to the spiritual (the gift of a long love at the end of life), this truly is a celebration of womanhood. her selections walk you through first love, pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, divorce, death, and -- lust. i feel very complete, somehow, each time i finish.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a read cover to cover book. It is a book that I return to again and again as I find myself being drawn to a particular poet or source of inspiration. Contributors to this collection of poems include Susan Griffin, Margaret Atwood, Nikki Giovanni, Anne Sexton and Alice Walker. Divided into sections including Owning Self, Death and Lesser Losses and Re-Mything. Women's voices "sing out" diversity, healing and the sacredness of the ordinary. These words offer comfort, compassion and insight in the extraordinary range of remarkable writers.

[Lis]

What I have read so far makes me want to read more. Wonderful collection of women authors and poems. Love that they are organized thematically.

[Ellen Keener · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my most treasured books. Met her at Fountain St.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is truly my favorite complilation of poetry. This is a book I would take with me if I were to move out to the mountains and become a goat lady....

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing collection of poetry! There's so much I could say but don't have the time. I highly recommend though.

[McCain Library]

This title is available at McCain Library in Stack 3. Call number: PS509.C55 C7 1991

Follow the link to check availability and more information: https://agnesscott.on.worldcat.org/oc...

If you need help locating it or requesting it for pickup, just ask a librarian or visit the Circulation Desk!

[Suzanne Singman]

Poems by women about life. What could be better.

[Kye Flannery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich, quiet, Savage, truthful women's poems.

[allyson dunn-worthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

invaluable. loved every second of this - so rich! will be consulting again and again and again.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best collections of poetry I own. What the heck

[Thomasin Propson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since it’s borrowed, I couldn’t annotate and don’t have record of which works most strongly caught my attention, but I was drawn to many of the contributions, and found it a more diverse and exciting anthology than I was expecting for a 1990s publication.

[Donna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book of poetry. Poetry expressing all that is sacred about life; thus everything there is about life. It is a compilation of women authors' myriad thoughts and feelings on all aspects of life as it effects woman. There are many, here is one:

Prayer for a Tenspeed Heart by Barbara Hendryson
Let the fire of my body
propel and warm me
and let each darkness
reveal its plenitude.

Let the hills
flatten under my wheels
and let the eloquent curves
yield up their good surprise.

Let my heart be obstinate
when I need to climb
and let my lowliest gears
restrain my spinning down.

Let there be flatland, too,
and into that glittering place
let me stretch with the heart of a lover,
at full speed, blind and intent.

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of poems by women published in 1991.
Themes:

Mothering, Death and lesser losses.

Songs of Brokenness and Alienation

The Will Toward the Good: How does change come? Poems of witnss and deed.

The spirit and the Flesh are One
(the hairshirts of yore have become the exercise bikes of today. )

The Unity of All That Is: the lack of separation of the mystic tradition.

Images of the Divine


Re-Mything: We are defined by our stories.

The Word : power of language in speaking truth, giving courage. Naming carries weight and definition. concepts shift.

**

[Marjorie Jensen]

This diverse collection of poems by women introduced me to writers I hadn't read before as well as reminded me of past moments of reading poetry. The words were familiar or startling--sometimes both at the same time. I felt a strong kinship with the editor, Marilyn Sewell, because I too have collected spiritual verses. And her love for the work and the poets in this book mirrored my love for the work and poets in my book. The poetry inspired me to think about, and feel, the role of women in divinity, love, universality, worship, and change. I didn't connect with all the poems, but I found a good number of profound connections. Finishing this book was a great way to begin my summer solstice.

[Kelli Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poems written by contemporary women, about women's experience, for other women. I expected this to be more about spiritual experience, but really it's broadly about all the many ways women interact with their world and the people around them. Poetry sometimes makes me restless, but this is one book I could come back to again and again and not get tired of it. I hear there are sequels also by Marilyn Sewell and I'd be interested in checking them out as well.

[Liesa · Rating 5 out of 5]

ahhhhh, its like a breath of fresh air. with so little time for mediation, this book has really helped me connect to that little part in me that comes in last place these days behind kid-work-school-house-dog-cat-cat-running. . . .you get my drift.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully executed anthology. Wonder selections. Nicely organized. It's definitely a book I will keep handy and dip into from time to time when I need validation, inspiration and some sister talk. My only negative is that there might have been a few humorous pieces.

[Faith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled across this work of art in B&N and it spoke to my spirit indeed. The selection of poetry and thoughts that are shared are intimate stories of the everyday life of a woman's struggle, joy, love,and glory celebrated.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find myself picking up this book again and again and discovering something new each time.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my favorite book when I need comfort, spirituality, or just when I need to know that I am ok.

[Amy Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite poetry books. Women's poetry of the spirit.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing collection of poetry and prose about women's spirituality. Never far from my hand.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry how I love you so.