These are the voices of women who, throughout the ages, yearned for self-realization and union with the divine. The words of the first known poet were chiseled on cuneiform tablets four thousand years ago. Her name was Enheduanna; she was a moon priestess and daughter of the king of Sumeria, a woman of power and privilege who wrote, "From the doorsill of heaven comes the word: 'Welcome!'" Millennia later, Emily Dickinson would write, "Why — do they shut Me out of Heaven?/ Did I sing — too loud?" Voices of Light brings together spiritual poems by women from around the world and allows these women to sing loudly, whether or not they were welcomed by the heavens or their own social situations. Though often deprived of public position, women have long practiced the personal art of writing and so have been prepared to be our spiritual and visionary voices of light. This comprehensive and feminine collection of poems gives evidence to what women have always known in their souls--that even though male poets are most often quoted as the heaven-blessed wordsmiths, women have always sung exquisite songs of divine praise, passion, and yearning. Editor and Pulitzer-Prize nominee Aliki Barnstone is a poet in her own right, and because of this she brings a keen literary eye to her selections. Since the volume reads in chronological order, it begins with Enheduanna (ca. 2300 BCE), who calls to the "moon goddess" Innanna. "We sing, mourn, and cry before you/and walk toward you along a path/from the house of enormous sighs." Every poem offers pause for reflection and is bound to stir enormous sighs of appreciation. Moving through centuries and millennia, Barnstone has included famous poets (Hildegarde of Bingen, Denise Levertov, Linda Hogan, Anne Sexton, Louise Erdrich) with the more obscure but equally divine. --Gail Hudson An anthology of more than two hundred poems by women from the ancient world to the present day, organized around the common ground of spirituality. Although the preface (not seen) by editor Barnstone (English/Univ. of Nevada) may explain her criteria for judgment, spiritual and visionary appear to be vague concepts in her hands, and the volume theyve given birth to seems deeply in thrall to the fuzziest nostrums of the feminist New Age. Were introduced to Hildegard of Bingen holding forth over there in the corner beside the eternally dreadful Phillis Wheatleywho should have been allowed to rest in peaceand poor Anne Bradstreet, who seems rather bored by the proceedings. Not to forget Sappho, or Sor Juana Inz de la Cruz: We have met them all before, but now theyre assembled together with Emily Dickinson, H.D., Marianne Moore, and Gwendolyn Brooksand we may be permitted to wonder if they find the party as odd as we do, and whether Saint Catherine of Siena and Sylvia Plath have very much to say to each other. Many of the ancient writers are practically unknown and deserve a larger audience, and the familiar faces are pleasant company at the worst of times (who wouldnt want to reread Mrs. Browning?), yet what exactly these writers have in common above the waist is far from clear. An authoritative mess. -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. In The Emptied Rest Home by Bella Akhmadulina Sleepless by Tumadir Bint Ibn Al-sharid Al-khansa Iron Heaven by Betti Alver The Firstborn Land by Ingeborg Bachmann Out Of The Corpse-warm Vestibule Of Heaven Steps The Sun by Ingeborg Bachmann You Want The Summer Lightning by Ingeborg Bachmann Bathing Jesus by Aliki Barnstone Blue by Aliki Barnstone Before The Birth Of One Of Her Children by Anne Bradstreet Here Follows Some Verses Upon The Burning Of Our House July 10th, 1666 by Anne Bradstreet In Memory Of My Dear Grandchild Anne Bradstreet Who Deceased June 20 by Anne Bradstreet Of The Finished World by Lucie Brock-broido The One Thousand Days by Lucie Brock-broido Physicism by Lucie Brock-broido Soul Keeping Company by Lucie Brock-broido Unforgettable, For All My Uncertainty As To What It Is I Am by Lucie Brock-broido Speak Of The North by Charlotte Bronte The Chicago Defender Sends A Man To Little Rock by Gwendolyn Brooks The Children Of The Poor, Sels. by Gwendolyn Brooks Hunchback Girl: She Thinks Of Heaven by Gwendolyn Brooks The Mother by Gwendolyn Brooks The Preacher: Ruminates Behind The Sermon by Gwendolyn Brooks The Rites For Cousin Vit by Gwendolyn Brooks Sappho's Gymnasium by Olga Broumas Sonnets From The Portuguese, Sels. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning To George Sand, A Recognition by Elizabeth Barrett Browning Nothing by Julia De Burgos The Book Of Isaiah: 3 by Anne Carson The Truth About God: God's Name by Anne Carson They Say That Plants Don't Talk by Rosalia De Castro Voice Of A Dissipated Woman Inside A Tomb by Violante Do Ceu Sorrow by Chu Shu-chen Anna Speaks Of The Childhood Of Mary Her Daughter by Lucille Clifton David, Mus