The Healing Heart: Poems of Loss and Life

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is also the
author of The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek, and
Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Hom

This first book of poetry by a woman of many talents and apparently
boundless energy is a striking testament to the power of the human
spirit to survive pain and “alchemize” it into strength that can be
given to others. Eleanor Koldofsky has suffered the deaths of a son,
parents, siblings, friends, and her marriage. In The Healing Heart, she
takes a lifetime of love and loss and transmutes it into words and
emotions we can share.

“None of It Was an Accident” compares life with a junkyard for old
cars: “My mind is a graveyard of wreckage, / memories of styles,
years, models ... All wasted, ugly, useless / waiting for the next
head-on.” “Concealment” recognizes the pain of those who care for
the suffering: “Where were my needs? / My grief, my sorrow / hidden
behind an apron, / a stove, a meal. / No time to share the truth.” In
“Ritual,” the poet links her son’s funeral to memories of his
birth and growth: “And grow did he / so did we / bursting with pride /
at the length of his stride / and his smile and his call.” The poem
concludes: “Nothing nothing nothing / will return my son.”

Koldofsky’s deeply moving poems amount to a bold celebration of love
and joy in the face of suffering. The Healing Heart is a triumph.