The lyrical magic and emotional resonance of Monza Naff’s poems in Healing the Womanheart have caused me, as a lover and scholar of poetry, to return to them again and again. Her precision of language and image in evoking the natural world has helped me to retrieve a sense of the sacred in my life. Her homages to the women she has held dear – her grandmothers, her lovers past and present, the members of her support group – transcend the private and rank among the best feminist lyrical tributes I have read. Her ritual pieces are equally moving when read aloud to one’s self at home and when performed publicly and multivocally. These are poems of compassion, solidarity, and survival; these are poems that women long to read.

Mary K. DeShazer, Ph.D.
Professor of Women’s Studies and English, Wake Forest University


Monza Naff swings with ease between the red-tailed hawk on the fence post and her own debilitating of illness, making potent and moving poetry from both. She gracefully crafts ritual song, designed to be useful in the world, as well as solitary meditation, always speaking of and from a generous heart. These are poems concerned with the spirit. Although they never cringe from painful or difficult truths, they leave the reader feeling hopeful and well nourished.

Judith Barrington
Co-Founder of Flight of the Mind and Soapstone


…Confessional poetry has been popular in this century, but Healing the Womanheart is confessional poetry with a difference. These poems have their share of pain and anger, but unlike other contemporary poets, Monza Naff assumes healing is possible and shows it occurring.

Marjorie D. Lewis, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Texas Christian University


Adrienne Rich, in her essay “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision,” urges women poets to speak “to and of women… out of a newly released courage to name, to love each other, to share risk and grief and celebration.” Monza Naff is one of the few poets I know who has been able to bring together in one volume that essential movement from pain through healing to the four prayers of sheer exaltation at the end. Healing the Womanheart is a mature, a composted book into which Monza has worked the gleanings of a lifetime.

Mara Faulkner, OSB, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English, College of St. Benedict


…Healing the Womanheart is a warm and generous collection, celebratory, sympathetic, and infused with a love not only for the real people in its pages but also for the real world – its flora, fauna, landscapes and seasons – she invites us to live in. Who could refuse?

Mimi Khalvati
Director of The Poetry School in London

 

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