Woe & Awe
The poems in Lisa M. Miller's debut poetry collection, Woe & Awe, draw us in with their timeless perspective and contemporary language and hold us with their fearless depth and beauty.
"Throughout Woe & Awe, Lisa M. Miller invokes the voices of female ancestors, physical and spiritual, who dare to suggest, "What if adversity has always been/essential?" Sustained by their spirit, Miller wrestles intergenerational and personal trauma in poems of vision, wit, and fierce clarity. Woe & Awe spans a lifetime, addressing personal crises, cultural history, and the Jewish diaspora. By the end of the volume we've seen the poet rendered whole, daughter and mother, deep in the joy of her own daughters, carrying her darkness and bearing the care of others who've been damaged."—Leatha Kendrick
From the Book
What Spirit Suggests
What Others Say
Throughout Woe & Awe, her debut poetry collection, Lisa M. Miller invokes the voices of female ancestors, physical and spiritual, who dare to suggest, "What if adversity has always been/essential?" Sustained by their spirit, Miller wrestles intergenerational and personal trauma in poems of vision, wit, and fierce clarity. Woe & Awe spans a lifetime, addressing personal crises, cultural history, and the Jewish diaspora. By the end of the volume we've seen the poet rendered whole, daughter and mother, deep in the joy of her own daughters, carrying her darkness and bearing the care of others who've been damaged. This is a shadowed book, never free of the certainty of suffering, but equally intent on embracing healing. Woe & Awe speaks back to shame. Whatever damage the past has done, "Leave it. Leave it again./The pulse of you depends/on a deliberate Yes." Woe & Awe is a brave book, a book we need now more than ever.
Lisa M. Miller's poetry grows on you in profundity with its lyricism and irony. Touching poems like, "I Come Home" intone humility and gratitude in the natural beauty of the woods. But what initially appears simple on the surface is filled with depth, honesty and insight. This book is for anyone who has suffered, is willing to probe, and is searching for hope.
Lisa M. Miller reveals her courageous soul as she explores her journey of growth through life's tough experiences. But we are reminded that life's ups and downs are an essential part of this human experience as Lisa asks: "What if adversity has always been/essential/in a breathing life?" and, "Imagine / all your pains / are pearls really / on celestial string /" These poems remind us that everything we experience makes us who we are, and that woe and awe are close companions on the journey of life.
About the Author
