Magdalena Ball runs TheCompulsive Reader. She is the author of the poetry books RepulsionThrust and Quark Soup,the novels Black Cow and Sleep Before Evening, a nonfiction book The Art ofAssessment, and, in collaboration with Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Deeper Intothe Pond, Blooming Red,Cherished Pulse, She WoreEmerald Then, and Imagining theFuture. She also runs a radio show, The Compulsive Reader Talks. Find out moreabout Magdalena at http://www.magdalenaball.com
<p>“<em>We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”(</em>Teilhard de Chardin<em>)</em></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;"><em>Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God </em> is as layered as a French cassoulet, as diverting, satisfying and as rich. Each reader will spoon this book differently. On the surface it seems to be a simple and light-hearted poetic journey through the history of Western thought, dominantly scientific, but enriched with painting and music. Beneath that surface is the sauce of a new evolutionary idea, involution; the informing of all matter by consciousness, encoded and communicating throughout the natural world. A book about the cathedral of consciousness could have used any language to paint it, but science is perhaps most in need of new vision, and its chronology is already familiar.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">The author offers a bold alternative vision of both science and creation: she suggests that science has been incrementally the recovery of memory, the memory of evolution/involution</span><em style="line-height:1.6em;">.</em></p><p>“<em> Involution proposes that humans carry within them the history of the universe, which is (re)discovered by the individual genius when the time is ripe. All is stored within our DNA and awaits revelation. Such piecemeal revelations set our finite lives in an eternal chain of co-creation and these new leaps of discovery are compared to mystical experience</em>” (From a reviewer)</p><p>Each unique contributor served the collective and universal return to holism and unity. Thus the geniuses of the scientific journey, like the spiritual visionaries alongside, have threaded the rosary of science with the beads of inspiration, and through them returned Man to his spiritual nature and origin.</p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">The separation between experience and the rational intellect of science has, by modelling memory as theory, separated its understanding from the consciousness of all, and perceives mind and matter as separate, God and Man as distinct. This work is a dance towards their re-unification: Saints and scientists break the same bread.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">All of time and all the disciplines of science are needed for the evidence. Through swift (and sometimes sparring) Cantos of dialogue between Reason and Soul, Philippa Rees takes the reader on a monumental journey through the history of everything – with the evolution of man as one side of the coin and involution the other. The poetic narrative is augmented by learned and extensive footnotes offering background knowledge which in themselves are fascinating. In effect there are two books, offering a right and left brain approach. The twin spirals of a DNA shaped book intertwine external and internal and find, between them, one journey, Man’s recovery of Himself., and (hopefully) the Creation’s recovery of a nobler Man.</span></p><p><span style="line-height:1.6em;">From the same review “</span><em style="line-height:1.6em;">The reader who finishes the book will not be the same as the one who began it. New ideas will expand the mind but more profoundly, the deep, moving power of the verse will affect the heart.</em></p><p><em>(Marianne Rankin: Director of Communications, Alister Hardy Trust)</em></p><p> </p>
"She Wore Emerald Then is more than a collection of poems; it is a collection of life. Each is poignantly written, taking the reader to the brink of emotion as a memory long forgotten is evoked, only to resurrect another time and place as the page is turned. Not only filled with beauty in its words, She Wore Emerald Then is filled with the complexities and challenges life visits upon us from conception to a last breath; a verbal and visual experience from start to finish." --Jozette Aaron, editor of DeSilva's News *** A book of finely cut gems to hold, admire, let their multi-facets flash their messages to mind, and the fine sharp edges of each plane hold the image indelibly. The poets take us either side of motherhood and all the pain and joy held in between. We visit, through Magdalena’s eyes, the arrival that makes a mother – the amazement, the awe, the juxtaposing of life’s simple statement ‘I am’ against the complexities of “The Genetic Code” that made the babe – the organised complexity of your extraordinary beauty couldn’t be simpler as you reach a tentative hand towards the future Then we are led by Carolyn, down the narrowing path to the final drawn out exit. The circle of life completes, the child is yet to know the mother, the mother has forgotten the child… We all forget names, I say as numb moves from hand to heart because it is my name she has forgotten. Gems sparkling here remind us of those seminal joys – the babe, the birth; other gems flash from the page and we recognise, whether we want to or no – the final pages turning to the close of one life’s book. -- J.R.McRae *** "What relationship is more complex or more elemental than the mother-child bond? Abraham Lincoln said, 'All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.' Toni Morrison wrote, 'Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that suppose to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing.' Both of those quotes, as well as one by Honore de Balzac at the beginning of SHE WORE EMERALD THEN, perfectly describe this collection of poems by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball---poetry that catches at your soul. Both of them reprise their poems from Ball's QUARK SOUP, Howard-Johnson's TRACINGS, and their joint collection, CHERISHED PULSE. Fans of CHERISHED PULSE will be pleased to learn that the poets continue to write poems that don't sound either like banal Hallmark cards or the bitter-at-dysfunctional-family jeremiads that habitually torture MFA writing workshop participants. The two poets complement each other (with words accompanied by stunning photography by May Lattanzio). The opus covers both the grand sweep of the birth of all universal life and the private universe populated by only an adult daughter watching her mother struggle to eat dinner and remembering how her mother washed her one slip. While Ball explores the cosmic continuum and traces us all back to the mother spark that set the stars burning, Howard-Johnson concentrates her portraiture on the deeply personal. But Ball also talks about the oxytocin haze of giving birth and her mother vomiting from cancer drugs. To quote the last poem in the collection, 'Hallmark Couldn't Possibly Get This Right.' When you read about the tough love of the universe or Ball's sienna childhood photograph or Howard-Johnson's mother forgetting her name, you want to cry and hug your mother (and your children, if you have them), because they capture the eternal tug of war between joy and sorrow in the mother-child bond."--Kristin Johnson, poet, author, screenwriter and founder of the Poet Warrior Project, http://poetwarriorproject.blogspot.com *** Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson (with photos by May Lattanzio) have joined forces to produce an intriguing look at mothers and motherhood in She Wore Emerald Then...This collection of poems offers some traditional scenes of mother / daughter relationships and others that are different and intriguing. --Willie Elliot, www.myshelf.com *** "This is a collection of poetry that movingly illustrates many aspects of motherhood and, if you are a poetry lover, there is much that you will find appealing and thought-provoking. In the first half of the book, the poems by Magdalena Ball have a cosmic quality to them and some wonderful imagery. In the poem 'Coil of Life', for example, giving birth is described as the 'Big Bang' and in 'Assault by a Black Hole', the reader is taken on a journey from the sublime to the commonplace and you can't help but smile..." Helena Harper, Author, It's a Teacher's Life
<div style="margin:0px;"> "She Wore Emerald Then is more than a collection of poems; it is a collection of life. Each is poignantly written, taking the reader to the brink of emotion as a memory long forgotten is evoked, only to resurrect another time and place as the page is turned. Not only filled with beauty in its words, She Wore Emerald Then is filled with the complexities and challenges life visits upon us from conception to a last breath; a verbal and visual experience from start to finish." <font color="#008000">--Jozette Aaron, editor of</font><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span> <a href="http://jozette.webs.com/newsletterarchives.htm"> <font color="#008000">DeSilva's News</font></a><p>***</p> <p class="MsoNormal">A book of finely cut gems to hold, admire, let their multi-facets flash their messages to mind, and the fine sharp edges of each plane hold the image indelibly. The poets take us either side of motherhood and all the pain and joy held in between. We visit, through Magdalena’s eyes, the arrival that makes a mother – the amazement, the awe, the juxtaposing of life’s simple statement ‘I am’ against the complexities of “The Genetic Code” that made the babe – </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">the organised complexity</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">of your extraordinary</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">beauty</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">couldn’t be simpler</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">as you reach a tentative</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">hand</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">towards the future</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;"> </span>Then we are led by Carolyn, down the narrowing path to the final drawn out exit. The circle of life completes, the child is yet to know the mother, the mother has forgotten the child… </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><em> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman, Italic;">We all forget names</span></em><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">, I say as numb</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">moves from hand to heart</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"> <span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:TimesNewRoman;">because it is my name she has forgotten.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';">Gems sparkling here remind us of those seminal joys – the babe, the birth; other gems flash from the page and we recognise, whether we want to or no – the final pages turning to the close of one life’s book. --</span><font color="#008000"> J.R.McRae</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal">***</p> <p>"What relationship is more complex or more elemental than the mother-child bond? Abraham Lincoln said, 'All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.' Toni Morrison wrote, 'Grown don't mean nothing to a mother. A child is a child. They get bigger, older, but grown? What's that suppose to mean? In my heart it don't mean a thing.'</p></div> <div style="margin:0px;"> </div> <div style="margin:0px;"> Both of those quotes, as well as one by Honore de Balzac at the beginning of SHE WORE EMERALD THEN, perfectly describe this collection of poems by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball---poetry that catches at your soul. Both of them reprise their poems from Ball's QUARK SOUP, Howard-Johnson's TRACINGS, and their joint collection, CHERISHED PULSE. Fans of CHERISHED PULSE will be pleased to learn that the poets continue to write poems that don't sound either like banal Hallmark cards or the bitter-at-dysfunctional-family jeremiads that habitually torture MFA writing workshop participants.</div> <div style="margin:0px;"> </div> <div style="margin:0px;"> The two poets complement each other (with words accompanied by stunning photography by May Lattanzio). The opus covers both the grand sweep of the birth of all universal life and the private universe populated by only an adult daughter watching her mother struggle to eat dinner and remembering how her mother washed her one slip. While Ball explores the cosmic continuum and traces us all back to the mother spark that set the stars burning, Howard-Johnson concentrates her portraiture on the deeply personal. But Ball also talks about the oxytocin haze of giving birth and her mother vomiting from cancer drugs. To quote the last poem in the collection, 'Hallmark Couldn't Possibly Get This Right.' When you read about the tough love of the universe or Ball's sienna childhood photograph or Howard-Johnson's mother forgetting her name, you want to cry and hug your mother (and your children, if you have them), because they capture the eternal tug of war between joy and sorrow in the mother-child bond."<font color="#008000">--Kristin Johnson, poet, author, screenwriter and founder of the Poet Warrior Project, </font> <a href="http://poetwarriorproject.blogspot.com"> <font color="#008000">http://poetwarriorproject.blogspot.com</font></a><p>***</p> <p>Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson (with photos by May Lattanzio) have joined forces to produce an intriguing look at mothers and motherhood in She Wore Emerald Then...This collection of poems offers some traditional scenes of mother / daughter relationships and others that are different and intriguing. <font color="#008000">--Willie Elliot, </font> <a href="http://www.myshelf.com/miscellaneous/09/sheworeemeraldthen.htm"> <font color="#008000">www.myshelf.com</font></a></p> <p>***</p> <p>"This is a collection of poetry that movingly illustrates many aspects of motherhood and, if you are a poetry lover, there is much that you will find appealing and thought-provoking. In the first half of the book, the poems by Magdalena Ball have a cosmic quality to them and some wonderful imagery. In the poem 'Coil of Life', for example, giving birth is described as the 'Big Bang' and in 'Assault by a Black Hole', the reader is taken on a journey from the sublime to the commonplace and you can't help but smile..." <font color="#008000">Helena Harper, <a href="http://helenaharpersblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/she-wore-emerald-then-cosmic-imagery.html."> <font color="#008000">Author, It's a Teacher's Life</font></a></font></p></div>