Sweeping Beauty: Contemporary Women Poets Do Housework
“Gemin's book embraces women's 'domesticity,' owns it, and stresses its transformative power. Sweeping Beauty explores the role of women in the home place, how they've found both confinement and comfort there, how they've learned from and departed from the lives of their female ancestors who have swept so many floors, baked so much bread, and hung so much wash on the line. The book celebrates 'women's work' and highlights its connection to myths and fables of cultures throughout the world.”--Mary Swander, author of The Desert Pilgrim: En Route to Mysticism and Miracles“The poems in Sweeping Beauty are like prequels to an archaeological dig--real voices recording the nature of our lives before the crockery is buried in lava, before the house is tumbled by quake or quiet centuries. The poets in this collection often mix themes of writing with their images of house-work, acknowledging poetry's recognition of our most basic needs and our efforts to resist them, our longing for order and chaos both, our endless fascination with how our lives can be stirred, swept, polished, and then undone all over again. What a treasure--to find these poems which take as their source our daily lives, and discover there profound insight, energy, transformation.”--Betsy Sholl