Poet and co-owner of Gulf of Maine Books Gary Lawless wrote the following review of ‘where i come from the fish have souls’ & event announcement:

Lisa Panepinto will read from her new book of poems “where I come from the fish have souls” (Spuyten Duyvil Press) at Gulf of Maine Books on Friday, July 26.

I love almost every poem Lisa Panepinto writes.

Lisa, who says, in her poem “let’s give thanks”:

“I want to live in moss
with mountain pollen
and balsam scent on my skin.”

Lisa who says in the book’s introduction:
“I envision “where I come from the fish have souls” as a place of equality and justice where the sacred earth and all living beings are revered and it’s recognized we share a holy connection to the life-giving sun, water, air, ground, and stars. I feel unable to truly rest in this awareness until all people and the land are treated with fairness and allowed freedom.”

Lisa who says of poetry, later in the preface:
“I aim to use poetry as a sense-making process, bear witness, and promote human rights. I also seek to express my relationship with the earth, which I’ve experienced as living breathing light since I was a child.”

Her new book shines with a soul-light that we can bask in, that reaches into our hearts, into the darkness, and out into the Milky Way.

Here is the title poem from the book:

where I come from

running through ferns diving into the sea
a fisherman appears puts wire into me

I lie on the rocks cover myself with salt water
and kelp play harp

there’s always a river circling
and my heart is the sea
a thousand times a day with sun and wind and rain

all I am I give hurricane light
the coral light gold of my return

the tide moves me sings through me
brings ecstatic wind a blessing rain
where I come from the fish have souls
(lisa panepinto)

review by Gary Lawless