Leonard Pielmeier, author of Hook’s Tale and Agnes of God
“Irene O’Garden’s Risking the Rapids is both a meditation and a thrill ride in which a sibling’s death prompts an unlikely family rafting journey through Montana’s wilderness. The beauty, moods, and menace of the swollen Flathead River seem an allegory of family life and, like sunlight glinting off water, her brutally honest reckoning is told in sparkling, luminous prose that gives memoir itself a fresh new shape.”
—Edward McCann, founder/editor of Read650.com
“Risking the Rapids is a sensitive depiction of a family’s attempt to heal. In the tradition of classic memoirs like The Glass Castle that highlight the coexistence of tortured love and unresolved misery, Irene O’Garden has captured the essence of family connections. With suspense and uncertainty about how complicated relationships unfold, this story intrigues and inspires us. I highly recommend this book to all of us who struggle with the legacies of abuse and the hopefulness to heal.”
—Sonya Rhodes, PhD, author and family therapist
Praise for Irene O’Garden’s Work
“For many years now, the poet, playwright, and memoirist Irene O’Garden has been a hero to me. I think of her as a walking, writing, beam of light. It is my hope that…numberless others will come to know her gifts and, most of all, her captivating talent for wonder and marvel.”
—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and Big Magic
“Bewitching…astounding…heartbreaking.”
—New York Times
“An immersion into what we relish, how we live, a kind of shining beacon that doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff…. Highly recommended.”
—Janet Pierson, Producer, SXSW Film Conference and Festival
“In a far-ranging and elegant suite of poems, Irene O’Garden balances a galaxy of incommensurates on the fulcrum of a disciplined intelligence. ‘I am a blueprint of a holy universe’ seesaws against ‘I feel like a set of china’—the former in a Herbert-like sacred meditation, the latter in a narrative about being chased by a bull. Her technique suggests influences ranging from Donne to Bishop, from Frost to Moore. Soulful and rewarding, these poems remind us that ‘We’re not made of matter but of mattering.’ ”
—T.R. Hummer, whose poems appear in The New Yorker, Best of American Poetry, Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly, Paris Review, and twelve volumes of his own
“The poems in Irene O’Garden’s new book, Fulcrum, illustrate the importance and vitality of poetry in our daily lives. Beautiful imagery, powerful emotions, simplicity, complexity and thought-provoking subjects—all drawn from relatable life experiences—make reading her work a journey of discovery and reflection by focusing on what it means to live a life of passion and wonderment. Like the author herself, the poems in these pages inspire and draw one in. This is a beautiful collection.”
—Professor Jane Kinney Denning of Pace University, President of Women’s National Book Association
Also by Irene O’Garden
Risking the Rapids: How My Wilderness Adventure Healed My Childhood
Fat Girl: One Woman’s Way Out
Fulcrum: Selected Poems
Women on Fire (play)
For Children
Maybe My Baby
The Scrubbly Bubbly Car Wash
Forest, What Would You Like?
Glad
to Be
Human
Adventures in Optimism
Irene O’Garden
Copyright © 2020 by Irene O’Garden
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.
Cover Design: Joanna Price
Cover Illustration : shutterstock/ Devon Carlson
Layout: Jayoung Hong
Photos: Irene O’Garden
Author Photo: Mark Lacko
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Glad to Be Human: Adventures in Optimism
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication number: 2020933892
ISBN: (p) 978-1-64250-246-6 (e) 978-1-64250-247-3
BISAC category code SEL021000, SELF-HELP / Motivational & Inspirational
Printed in the United States of America
To You,
My Fellow Human.
Table of Contents