Root of Light Description:

When Michelle Doege crossed over the border from the U.S.  into Canada, with her now wife of many years from India, she opened to the questions tugging at her psyche. She dug deep, wrote into the centre and crafted poems:

  • What did my ancestors from Germany and Ireland go through, now so long ago, when they crossed over the ocean, leaving both home and homeland behind?

  • What shifts inside when a border exists between us? Or when our close loved one crosses over that final border of life and death?  How does this shape our sense of place, of home?

  • What internal borders must we cross over to be at home in our own selves, our bodies – in my case, my sexuality and writing into my own bold voice?

Her greatest learning: borders are also slippery, elusive – never as solid as they seem. That somehow, we remain intimately connected across borders, infused always by the great-green spirit, and love. These poems now energize her collection, Root of Light.

To learn more about Root of Light, or to purchase, please visit:

Shanti Arts  

Bookshop.org

Amazon.ca/com          

 

“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision,

then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

~ Audre Lorde

 

Other Publications & Video-Poems

Featured Poet & Poem: “Breathe” (2022)

 
 

Story: “End of a Rainbow” (Caitlin, 2017)

 

Video-Poem: “Fields of Wheat”  

Seedy Saturday Conference (2021), Farm Folk City Folk

 
 
 

Poem: “Evacuation [Order]” (2022)

 
 

Evacuation [Order]

Helicopter flies over Okanagan Lake

                a tiny sand bucket tied

to the end of a rope. On a rare day,

                we can watch it dip

& disappear, swallowed

                by a coal grey sky.

A teaspoon of water dropped

                onto a raging house fire.

No evacuation order needed

for the chipmunks & squirrels,

coyotes & deer, ears perked-up

and running, choking on smoke.

We with our windows sealed shut

                blizzard of ash & black

chunks of tree against canvas

of orange sky – landing

on our Buddha, our tomatoes,

our green & flowering plant.

~Michelle Doege

 

Awards

  • “Siva’s Fire” – Shortlisted for Malahat Review’s Constance Rooke Creative Nonfiction Prize (2021)

  • “White Out” (long poem) – Shortlisted for Tulip Tree Publishing’s Stories that Need to Be Told (2019)

Readings & Events

  • Valley Voices Readings — Kelowna & Summerland Libraries

  • Gallery Vertigo Interludes — an Evening of Music & Poetry

  • Vancouver Public Library Reading

  • Spoke Literary Festival

  • An Evening with Okanagan Writers

  • Vertigo Women Writers, Okanagan College

  • Poetry London (Ontario)

  • Jazz & Poetry, London Music Club

 

We all feed into the circle -- to help each other grow as humans and writers.

Below, are a few of my greatest mentors of inspiration: