The following review was contributed by: PAULA BARDELL

Deborah L. Humphreys believes that poetry is a way of communicating. It is ‘reflection and prayer, a way to stay grounded, honest and powerful’. She is gifted with a remarkably sensuous intelligence; her thoughts and themes arrive in impressions observed with an intense particularity, in all their magnificence and horror. She describes her approach to poetry as being ‘like a poem itself - identifying that piece of life, truth, experience that needs to be explored, understood, dealt with, proclaimed’, and strives to find the ‘images, symbols and words that match’. Indeed, her poetry is a kind of ‘…survival tool, a protection, and an instrument to bring more beauty and life’.

Not only is Deborah a Sister of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, Convent Station, New Jersey, but also a bilingual social worker, clinical supervisor and family therapist. She was raised in Salem County but has lived in Newark – part of the Greater New York Metropolitan Area - for the last thirty years. She is a featured reader at the Wildwood Writers' Conference, St. Mark's Poetry Project, and the Hoboken Artists' Studio Tour, where she frequently organises workshops that blend social services with the arts. She describes herself as ‘a citizen of a number of communities’, for although she was born in the USA, she has Irish family roots, and her life as a Catholic nun means she exists ‘on the outside, on the margins’.

From her home in ‘Brick City’, in the ‘shadow of Newark Airport where she could once see the Twin Towers if she stood at the end of her block - she writes with wit and panache about streetwalkers, nuns, the city, words, jealousy, birth, ‘god’ and whatever else she knows and sees.

Her latest collection, Conventional Wisdom offers a glimpse into the lives of a diverse medley of women whose existences are revealed with an oblique, respectful, tender, reflective voice.

the kitchen is full /

of women. we are only one /

among them and they appear to us /

unexpected and loud /

but perfectly at home /

in pulling out every one /

of our cast-iron skillets and aluminum /

vessels of our common liturgies

(“thedream/obedience”)

Deborah’s writing is delightfully unpretentious and she displays an enormous empathy, curiosity and almost mystical fascination with her subjects. The women waiting patiently in line for their moment of recognition are being celebrated for their diversity, their individuality and above all their spirit.

i was teresa of sackcloth and hemp /

who escaped to the moors /

begging to be liberated from all this becoming /

young spirit tethered unwillingly to body /

wicked monthly martyrdoms /

(“sister anne

lynne linehan”)

As we read, Deborah becomes our guide, leading us like a gaggle of inquisitive travellers through an historic chapel. She moves softly around her subjects, drawing us into their worlds with an assurance and consistency born of her ‘desire to go into the home of a family in crisis or to struggle over a poem’.

The word ‘dandelions’ recurs intermittently throughout this collection, appearing unexpectedly at the end of a poem or secreted in a stanza. What is the significance to the poet of this broad-toothed, yellow flower, which rises on a hollow purplish stem and flourishes on wasteland? It is generally regarded as a nuisance, merely a weed to be ripped up or eliminated with poison. However, the dandelion is a survivor – no sooner destroyed than re-emerging in a gutter, between cracks in a sidewalk or atop stinking human debris on a rubbish dump. The dandelion always finds a way to thrive against all odds. Does Deborah perhaps see the women around her as being like dandelions – deep-rooted, determined, flowering in surprising places?

The power of her strongest poems is in their imagery, which is at once almost overwhelmingly intense but at the same time defiant in its direct, unwavering tone, challenging the reader to smell the city and share in its torment. Particularly striking are poems like “roses/chastity”, “retreat weekend” and “sister deborah d’onofrio: canticle of Deborah”, which are complex yet visceral, occasionally allowing a number of competing interpretations to emerge.

perfectly cascading waves of sienna /

eyes fixed on heaven or beyond /

and fingers holding the single frond /

like a poet’s quill, across her chest /

the metal instrument, the evidence /

of what men will do /

in the face of mystery

(“feastday

February 5 agatha”)

With humour and poignant meditation, Conventional Wisdom combines the mordant with the celebratory, the kindness of the heart with the astringent taste of experience, and describes the shared uncertainties, desires and inborn perceptions of women everywhere.

prepare yourself, prepare yourself /

prepare to be filled always /

with restlessness, ache, desire, the somber /

realization whoever lead you to believe the spirit /

would pass gentle, soft, cooling through this torment /

is a follower of a too easy grace /

(“feastday

march 24 oscar romero)”

Deborah is currently working on a collection of lyric essays about her social work in Newark and has begun translating some of the poems from Conventional Wisdom into Irish. If this review has piqued your interest in her work, you can visit her website at www.nunwizdom.com, where she posts her latest compositions and information about readings and workshops. A selection of downloadable poetry is also available at www.mp3.com/nunwizdom.