The title and cover of my new poetry book seems to about the total eclipse that we experienced last April. In a way it is. There is one poem about the eclipse that contains the phrase "slow journey to totality." But as I pondered a title I realized that many of the poems were about the desire to continue to grow, learn, and experience new things as we age---until we are whole. And so, it is both.
Diane Vogel Ferri's tender and emotive new poetry sequence, A Slow Journey to Totality, leaves a bold and generous "portal open for" the reader too. join her in exploring a lifetime encompassing innocence, longing, loss and personal evolution--through hard and soft, open and heavy and sometimes "hollow arms"; through faith, hope, parenthood, and myriad layers of relationship; as well as through "decades of music" and brilliant mystery"--to find meaning, beauty, and well-earned light in the fullness of time. Ferri deserves gratitude for allowing us to accompany her on this journey, and for providing navigational landmarks to guide us on our own.John Burroughs, U.S. National Beat Poet Laureate, 2022-23