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    Holding to the Light
    Holding to the Light
    Holding to the Light
    Ebook65 pages28 minutes

    Holding to the Light

    By Mary Hanford Bruce

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    About this ebook

    Award-winning poet Mary Hanford Bruce explores her awakening consciousness and shares her pain and insights she experienced both in the United States and in the Third World. The original print edition was published after her two years as a Fulbright Scholar in Cameroon, Africa. She is known for her ability to say much in a few words, whether it is showing sorrow, lonliness, pain or wonderment.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUCS PRESS
    Release dateOct 27, 2010
    ISBN9780943247915
    Holding to the Light
    Author

    Mary Hanford Bruce

    Mary Hanford Bruce's poems and stories have been published in the United States, Brussels, Israel, Cameroon and Zimbabwe. The second edition of her poetry collection, Holding to the Light, was released early in 2003. Dr. Sally's Voodoo Man is her first novel, inspired in part by her two years as a Fulbright Scholar in Cameroon. The award-winning poet is Professor of English at Monmouth College, Illinois where she teaches Creative Writing. She has two more Dr. Sally adventures in the works:Dr. Sally’s Mossad ManDr Sally’s Muscovite Man.She is nearing completing of a nonfiction work, I Remember Germany. This is how she introdues that work, which is of high post-World War II historical interest:I Remember Germany when the buildings were rubble, the country split by four nations and both conquerors and conquered hungry. Yet, as a ten-year-old thrust into post-war wrangling over the assets of Alfried Krupp, Hitler’s financier, I was hungry for understanding, not food. For two fateful years I played in Villa Hugel, Krupp’s palace, where the allies had offices, so was “the fly on the wall” during international decision-making. As I played Jacks in the Great Hall, I sensed confusion and evil underlying smooth diplomatic surfaces. When the mission crumbled because of a desperate move by our government to mitigate Cold War threat, I felt sad but not surprised.The author was born in Washington, DC and brought up in Europe and the Southwestern United States.Dr. Sally's Voodoo Man and Holding to the Light are available in e-book editions at Smashwords.

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      Book preview

      Holding to the Light - Mary Hanford Bruce

      Flight

      If I look for you in the marshes

      of a bird reserve,

      will I find you

      in the wooden blind looking at a grey wren,

      or the North Sea staring at gulls?

      You are not in the hide, on the sea,

      not in my arms. In the room

      we shared I look for the hollow of your shoulder,

      find only air and the scent

      of a blue jacket flapping through airplane doors

      sounds of electronic closings sicken me.

      That eel we watched gulped by a cormorant,

      stalked by a hopeful heron, was a violence

      no more true than the way Africa has swallowed you.

      ****

      In these poems, Mary Hanford Bruce explores her awakening consciousness

      as she shares the pain and insights gained through the hardships of life both in the United States and in the third world. The author is winner of the national Flume Poetry Contest, July, l990; the Jonquil Trevor Sonnet Contest, 1984; and the Arizona State Poetry Society's Contest, 1984.

      ****

      Holding to the Light

      Mary Hanford Bruce

      Award-winning Poet

      Published by UCS PRESS at Smashwords

      Copyright 2010 by Mary Hanford Bruce

      UCS PRESS is an imprint of MarJim Books

      PO Box 13025

      Tucson, AZ 85732-3025

      Cover design by Marty Dobkins

      ISBN 978-0-943247-91-5

      This e-book contains the whole contents of print editions published in 1991 and 2003 by The Eagle and Stallion Publishers and copyrighted in 1991 and 2003 by Mary Hanford Barnes.

      This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      ****

      For Kathy in Africa

      and

      Ira in Illinois

      ****

      Table of Contents

      One: Ghosts

      You, Marvell

      Refrain

      Picture Hat

      Flight

      Guinea Pig

      Cushions

      Rosalind

      Biopsy

      Aftermath

      The Couple

      This Year

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