Noble Orphan

Noble Orphan explores several related themes and issues: immigration, ESL teaching and cross-cultural mothering; traditional mothering and fathering; the social constructions of masculinity and femininity; violence in gender relations; child abuse and the lack of commu- nal responsibility for child welfare; home and homelessness; mental health and psychiatry; trauma and healing; female friendship and community; ecofeminist spirituality; and animal and environmental protection. Like her first poetry book Welcoming (Inanna Press), Noble Orphan is a reflective collection that challenges destructive values while promoting ecofeminist ones, a cooperative, ecologically sustainable world with “beehive love ”(from “Beehive Love”). It spans a wide range of emotions: there is empowered anger—words that “catch on fire” (from “Fire-Eater”)—but also care, compassion, and gentlessness—“the light touch of the dragonfly” (from “One-YearOld Girl”). The creative use of language and beautiful simplicity of many of the poems enables the reader to enter the writing with ease.