Redemption Songs: A Collection of Poems, by Alice S. Morrow Rowan

Poems, photos, layout, and production by Alice S. Morrow Rowan

A first book of eighteen poems and photos

Some months after producing my first "self-published" book (for my friend's mother, For of Such Is the Kingdom of Heaven, by Margaret Vincent) I shared it with a new friend. "You can do this?!" Mary asked after paging through the book. She proceeded to tell me that after her father retired from teaching he wrote a novel. In 2000 he died, but not before instructing his children to get the story published. More than a decade later it was still an unedited manuscript. Mary asked if I could help her publish it.

I had used the Blurb self-publishing platform to create Margaret Vincent's book a couple of years earlier. I researched the options again before beginning the process of producing the novel. We chose to use CreateSpace, Amazon's on-demand publishing company, to publish Mary's father's novel.

Before diving into Mary's project, however, I decided it might be wise to produce a "guinea pig" book in order to learn the CreateSpace system. Redemption Songs is the product of that rehearsal. It reproduces a collection of poems I wrote, each accompanied by a photo I took, that a few years earlier I had "published" on my own printer as a Christmas present for a friend. In the process I learned what I needed to know to "midwife" more than ten more books that needed to be born.

I published my book of poems without biographical or explanatory information of any kind. If I were to produce a second edition I would explain that they were all written during the four years before I returned, after twenty-one years away, to the faith community I had chosen for myself at age eighteen but drifted away from in my late twenties. The last poem in the book, "The Flood," is my favorite, because it was written just a few months before I found my way "home" and I am grateful that I was not, in fact, "too late":

The Flood

It is as though you are
on the ark—learning how
to feed the animals, how
to live in a small space,
and how to wait for
God’s timing—
and I am outside,
whipped and whetted
by the whirling
waters rising around
my broken heartbeats
and reaching arms,
spitting out the sharp
shards of shattered
suppositions that
land in my mouth
when I gasp for air or
cry out to be let in,
still smelling the
sweet sweat of our
lost land while the
wailful winds peal.
Now and then you
reach out a hand but
the current is strong
and I feel too late
to take it.

November 2007
From Redemption Songs, p. 37. Copyright © 2012 by Alice S. Morrow Rowan.

I had the opportunity to come upon this little book of poetry and photos recently and must say I am touched by it. Morrow's first publication is a tender treat, sometimes evoking loneliness and pain, but always coming back to peace and comfort. The lead poem, "Born Again" is the perfect start to this book, and gives you the feeling you are in for a peaceful journey.

Yet you are immediately cut by the pain of "Some Things", and feel Morrow's warning cry of "If only they knew, if only they knew" to the young girls pining for adulthood, not yet aware of what lies ahead.

However, you are guided back to constant reminders of hope in this book, and feel refreshed each time. Perhaps refilled. Hope is a theme throughout the poems. Sometimes tentative hope, other times very certain.

Photos accompany the poems and add a nice touch to the verse. They often fit perfectly and help tell what the author wants you to know. Although a deeply personal faith-framed book, the reader need not be Catholic (as the author), nor even a Christian to understand and be moved by the works within. Yes, Catholics will appreciate and understand certain references and photos (such as the cover shot) more than others, but the book has no religious boundaries to enjoyment of its content.

Both my wife and I enjoyed this little gem.

~ Review posted by William G. McQuaig on Amazon.com