Shake the Atmosphere to Reclaim an Empty Moment - by Caroline Reddy (Paperback)

About the Book

A gladly captivating enchantment of a first book gives us poems about Zen, a warrior's heart, nightingales and fireflies, compassion, sex, surrender, and particles of light that bring about healing and transformation after trauma.

Book Synopsis

A gladly captivating enchantment of a first book, the writer Caroline Reddy gives us poems about healing and transformation after trauma. Reddy's voice takes us from the rocket bombardment of a child hiding in a shelter beneath a building, to vivid personal incarnations of Zen philosophy as seen through the eyes of a martial artist, to the beguiling power of the feminine in relation to the natural world by a women casting spells over a fireplace in a dark forest; Reddy is always returning us to the tribal, the sacred dance, the ancient gathering places of human beings, places where healing and growth and understanding turn our outward darkness into inward brightness.

Review Quotes

In Shake the Atmosphere to Reclaim an Empty Moment, Caroline Reddy embarks on a Zen-inspired journey of self-discovery through woods, labyrinths, and fields of plum blossoms to find "a warrior's heart wrapped in rose scent." Told through a diverse array of poetic styles, the poems in this debut collection travel a galaxy of juxtapositions through universes and micro moments, into the political and the personal, onto roads paved with isolation and ultimately interconnectedness. Take a breath, "anoint [your] wrists with lavender oil," and join the poet as she witnesses the exact moment when "a glass appears/in the kaleidoscope of time," when "a harsh winter settles/into the scent of a new spring moon."

Claudine Nash

Author of BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO LOSS IN THE MULTIVERSE

With an unflinching slew of brilliant, heart-wrenching poems, Caroline Reddy teaches us what it means to feel, endure, and grow from pain. From her Iranian heritage to her experiences as a healer, Caroline shows us the value of looking at the world with a brave clarity free of illusion. The World needs it, too.

Tommy Sheffield

Author of THE STRENGTH IT TAKES TO STAY AFLOAT

Caroline Reddy brings a warrior's heart and an explorer's fearlessness to these poems of discovery and reclamation. We travel with her through the hard work required to "rewire a new path" from her childhood in Iran, through the spiritual lessons of her zen and reiki practices, her deep love of the natural world, and up to the celestial spheres in her "steampunk space suit underneath human skin". Infused with wonder and a refusal to accept the world as it is handed to her, these poems are invitation and encouragement to walk "barefoot through the labyrinth" and to join the poet on journeys that will take us beyond ourselves and what we thought we knew into our own star-dusted, limitless possibilities.

Susan Moorhead

Author of CARRY DARKNESS, CARRY LIGHT