The absolutely stunning poetry collection Girl Flying Kite: Poems consists of forty-two poems written by an award-winning writer.Nancy Louise Lewis features poems that came from a childhood spent in Appalachia and her other life experiences. She deals with sexual abuse, questions pre-conceived ideas about the world around us, and experiments with language in her works.
She says, "Many of the poems have won awards, and I wanted to collect the best of my work into one volume. More to come."
The first poem in the collection, and the title of her book, Girl Flying Kite, describes the moment a nuclear bomb exploded over Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II.
Her poem begins:
We have to imagine
she had flaws, the girl
whose shade is blasted forever
into Nagasaki stone. She was doubtless
less beautiful than the outline
suggests.
It ends:
Seen from far above the earth, the mushroom
cloud containing the molecules
of the girl must have looked
like a giant knob opening
the door to a roomful of human horrors,
lives no more than scraps of paper
to be wadded up and tossed
into a corner trash basket.
Her words are poignant, powerful, and most importantly, unforgettable.
About the Author: Now retired, award-winning newspaper journalist and college professor Nancy Louise Lewis was born near Appalachia and now lives in Connecticut. She is CEO of her nonprofit, Legalities, Inc., which helps deserving litigants afford an attorney to access the court system. This is her second book. Her first was a memoir titled Daisies Don't Lie: Misadventures in Journalism: The Making of a Feminist.
