Description
Poetry. In MERCY Judith Montgomery chronicles the story of caring for her a husband as he endures cancer treatment. Though brutal in its technology, the medical world Montgomery describes is merciful in its human form, peopled by chemotherapy nurses whose expertise is matched by mercy, as they "lift the plumped / sac, poisons mixed to pour fire into flesh." Anyone who has had even the least brush with cancer will find here an honest and hopeful world, where suffering is lightened by the sight of butterflies, "mutable flames that glide as we— / refugees from the cancer center, / and stunned by treatment— / ... glide in luxurious / light, afloat in paradise."
Author Bio
Judith H. Montgomery lives in Oregon. Her poems appear in The Bellingham Review, Prairie Schooner, and Tahoma Literary Review, among other journals, as well as in a number of anthologies. Her first collection, Passion, received the 2000 Oregon Book Award for poetry. Red Jess appeared in 2006 from Cherry Grove Collections; her chapbook, Pulse & Constellation, was a finalist for the Finishing Line Press Competition and appeared in 2007 from the Press. Her second full-length book, Litany for Wound and Bloom, was published by Uttered Chaos Press in 2018. Her poetry workshops include poetry as healing agent, first given at the Examined Life Conference in 2017. She holds a doctorate in American Literature from Syracuse University.
Author City: BEND, OR USA