Open Heart

Elegant poetry exploring a midwestern woman's relationships to family, ancestors, and the world

Literature & Fiction

Sornberger, Judith

Poetry

Calyx Books

The desire and struggle to pray pulses through this spiritually resonant collection in forms as various as psalms, Tai Chi, meditation, needlework, lament, and thanksgiving. Even poems not overtly about prayer lead the reader into prayer-like contemplation as the poetconsiders war, environmental devastation, corporate greed, and poverty as personal, as well as sociopolitical, subjects. Crossing borders between the distant and the local, the historic and the contemporary, I Call to You from Time also reaches beyond the temporal to the eternal. Poems responding to paintings of the Virgin Mary are echoed in others about the poet’s own motherhood and her son’s deployments to—and wounding in—Iraq and Afghanistan. The poet discovers Our Lady of Guadalupe emblazoned on a toss pillow at Walmart and encounters the Virgin Mary at a rest stop in Nebraska. Laundry hung in a neighbor’s yard recalls Tibetan prayer flags, while deers’ hoof prints in the snowy woods lead to evidence of fracking. Personal, political, and planetary brokenness are encountered throughout, yet the poems in I Call to You from Time seek to create from their shards a mosaic of meaning in which we find ourselves connected to one another and to the divine.

I Call to You from Time

Resource Publications

The delights and conflicts of a loving marriage are revealed as the poet’s husband is diagnosed with cancer and dies, all within months. Yet the present moment―birds at the feeder, creatures wild and domestic, dancing with her husband in the kitchen, and arguing hilariously about the afterlife―shimmers with life.

Practicing the World

CavanKerry Press

Once a "nice pagan girl," acclaimed poet and scholar Judith Sornberger recounts her journey through faith in this beautiful personal memoir, highlighted by a trip to Italy. As a professor of English and Women's Studies, Sornberger had long been interested in the female role in scripture, iconography, and religious literature. When she began questioning her personal choices regarding Church and religion, Sornberger was drawn to art to find some answers. Her journey through the churches and museums of Italy, gazing upon powerful images of scriptural scenes, led her to insights into the place of Mary, along with other women, in a life of faith and service. Within this carefully told narrative and full-color images of many of the works of art that inspired Sornberger, the reader will find much to influence his or her own remarkable journey of faith.

The Accidental Pilgrim: Finding God and His Mother in Tuscany

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Shanti Arts LLC

The Book of Muses

Finishing Line Press

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Books by Sornberger, Judith