From our 1999 web site archives...
The poems in Exultation are also published in the collection Healing the Womanheart by Monza Naff.
Exultation by Monza Naff speaks to people who love poetry, think they hate poetry, and have never read poetry before but who like to learn through looking at pictures!
This quartet of poems, on the surface prayers to and about the seasons in a year, also explores the seasons of people’s lives— humanity’s deeper cycles of despair and exultation, doubt and faith, death and life, seasons all humans know but often fail to honor.
Drawing upon Taoist principles, Monza Naff’s quartet captures the continuous movement of life and the heart in nature. The poems are lyrical, wise, honest, and hopeful. They bespeak a woman who lives fully and sees clearly what most of us fail to see. Reading these poems is like traveling to our hometown with an artist who draws pictures of the place that suddenly help us see our home as if for the first time.

The collaborative effect of poetry and art is stunning in this unique chapbook. Exultation becomes a treasured little book for reading again and again, a resource for meditation, an exquisite gift for anyone in transition, marking a milestone, or committed to growth.

Exultation was the magical result of four talented women, across many miles, following their passions and pouring their love of poetry, art and design into this project. The result “transcended a mere sharing of skills to become an intimate weaving of sister spirits” as the author so eloquently wrote in the acknowledgments.

Katherine Witteman (TOP) is inspired by a love of language, an enthusiasm for bold color, and the magical combination of words and pictures. Her art is meant to capture the eye and hold the heart. She works in her studio, Dancing Heart, in Portland, Oregon.

Carol Erickson DuBosch (MIDDLE) loves to make letters and teach others the joy of writing with wet ink. Carol is a professional lettering artist who works, plays and teaches in Portland, Oregon.

Nancy Cleary (BOTTOM) is the publisher and designer, learn more about her at About the Company.