Starting with the image of November thunderstorms worthy of July followed next day by snow flurries, in her title poem "Safehold," Ann Hostetler grieves that the weather's off, that racists rise, making her wonder "How long can we deny the signs?" Poignantly she concludes, "Like Noah, I build an ark, / gathering what I love inside-- / this frail coracle / of words." That coracle has become Safehold, a five-part collection of poems and volume 15 in Cascadia's DreamSeeker Poetry Series.
"Safehold teaches what I never want to forget: that all people are my neighbors, that my mother is my original love, that any child shunned, slaughtered, shamed is my child. Hostetler has written a true work of Christian poetry: these poems incarnate Christ's elegant, dark hand, unknowable and open, ready to carry us all." --Rebecca Gayle Howell, Author, American Purgatory
"Hostetler, who has done so much for Mennonite literature as teacher and editor, now gives us a second collection of her own plainspoken poems. Their message? Refuse to be shunned. Breathe. Build an ark. Seek forgiveness not perfection. Write what you love. Again and again, she calls us to everyday mindfulness in the midst of our grief: failing parents, worrisome children, the world's uncertain course. Honest and wise, this book is a tonic for our times." --Julia Spicher Kasdorf, Author, Shale Play: Poems and Photographs from the Fracking Fields
"With these richly layered poems, Hostetler illuminates the gifts, intimacies, and complications of family, heritage, and contemporary life. With clear-eyed gaze she artfully 'traces our shapes, ' our celebrations and tragedies, inviting us to 'live as though the body were the soul.'" --Jean Janzen, Author, What the Body Knows
"Hostetler gathers her living and dead into these poems, generations of seekers and travelers, and seats them at the table, telling stories that serve as a safehold against the confusion and violence of the world, while also using 'the bellows of the breath' to praise beauty, to comfort with a failing yet steadfast love. The poet confesses, 'All my life I've tried to live as though / the body were the soul, ' and to that end Hostetler's rich poems are incarnational meditations so very necessary for survival. --Todd Davis, Author, Native Species and Winterkill
The Author: Ann Hostetler, Professor of English, Goshen (Ind.) College, is the author of Empty Room with Light (Cascadia/DreamSeeker Books) and editor of A Cappella: Mennonite Voices in Poetry. She edits The Journal for Mennonite Writing at https: //mennonitewriting.org/.