and so, the Wind was Born

by Gina Duran

...and so, the Wind was Born is about a wind character who finds healing in the many forms of love; self, romantic, friendship, communal, familial, and spiritual. The main character, is the personification of a queer, gender fluid, poet and artist healing from their trauma. This individual discovers that they are wind and wonders what type of wind they are. Are they destructive like a hurricane or gentle love messages in a breeze? This character begins to think about how the wind might also be their love interest, Mon Coeur, because they feel the wind around them every time Mon Coeur is near.
The two wind characters begin self discovery outside of their trauma, but the Main character is struggling to let go of the past and searching the present for love. It takes this character a while to get past the desire and need to be accepted by others to feel validated. The main character feels they destroy everything in their path--especially love-- because they fear not being good enough or strong enough or loving enough, but after many tries comes to find that she/he is more than the wind--they are love--and it is important to free themself. They discover who they really are beyond titles. It is by stripping away titles that they find that there is something much deeper and more powerful than romance, but friendship, and sangha. The trials and tribulations of the two characters show us how love not only heals two people in a relationship, but can extend beyond self and couples, and evolve into family and community. Which allows the main character to eventually discuss their desire to help heal the world around them through love, friendship, community, and connection.
This book of poetry shows us how love is an ouroboros, constantly reshaping our love for ourselves and others and making room for more-it is limitless and ineffable. It shows us how we are all connected and that love of self is love for others, and vice versa. The wind character Mon Coeur teaches the main character that love is how we survive and strive through the liminal. She teaches us that endings are beginnings, and that life has just begun.

100 pages, Paperback

Published February 25, 2021

Reviews

[Marisol Cortez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book originated as a series of “lunch box” poem notes to a beloved (revealed in the end as “sangha,” sacred community—in this regard the love poems almost remind me of Rumi) but it’s the the natural science metaphors that predominate, with its running theme of wind, electromagnetism, solar flaring, Aurora Borealis. Duran tells us in her epilogue that this was her effort to write less literally than she’s accustomed, but I actually found it was her prose poems in the second half of the book that moved me the most, especially “Her Fierce Warrior Heart” (on her grandmother’s passing, as told thru the burial of a ruby-throated hummingbird) and “The Compression of What Matters,” which skillful interweaves the writer’s own small embodied gestures (the peeling of an orange) with the largest movements of space and time in the physical universe to the political traumas of migrant child internment (“Borders are black holes collapsing dreams—absorbing light from refugees”). Will be looking for more from this writer!

[Slappy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful collection of poetry. The pieces are hauntingly beautiful. I have read the poems multiple times, and each time I re-read them, I find a new interpretation.

[Tara Tavi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lyrical, emotive, touching and tender. This book cuts to the quick with heartrending scenes. Highly recommend!

[Juanita Mantz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first met Writer Gina Duran through my twin sister. I invited Gina on my podcast and we instantly connected. The poems Gina read aloud on my podcast were mesmerizing.

Gina is a Renaissance person, and not only a writer and educator, but runs IE Hope Collective, a non-profit for the most needy and voiceless and teaches yoga and lectures on wellness.

So to say I was excited to read Gina's book "... And So The Wind Was Born" is an understatement.

The collection surpassed my expectations and this is an eclectic collection of enriching and uplifting poetry. Gina has a profound way of capturing the ephemeral.

The "lunchbox messages" from the poetry collection captures romance in short love notes, which for me, were almost like messages in a bottle. They are sanguine, and inspiring. As Gina writes in one of these, "... you became more than a love story in a book of my dreams."

I was drawn in. Transfixed. Then, I put the book down and came back from a very bad day at work to it when I needed it. When I read her piece "Hope in the Dark" it comforted and sustained me. It gave me hope. As Gina so eloquently writes, "It is said that prayer is powerful."

So is this collection. This is poetry that touches the soul. Such magic! JEM-writer, lawyer, podcaster

[Xrstine Franco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is magical. The ease in which Duran weaves her alternatingly painful and buoyant stories with classical poetic mechanics is quite rare. The ease with which it reads is welcome. The stories are heartbreaking and heartmaking. A real NEW AMERICAN CLASSIC. Do NOT MISS THIS BOOK.