Key West The Newspaper

by Kirby Congdon…….

A feminist literary magazine, 13th Moon, originally promoted the publication of poems by the late Andrea K. Willison. The collection, consisting of 91 poems, is entitled The Only True Power is in Connection. These words are the roots of a poem in themselves. They suggest the solidity of this author’s work and why there have been several printings of the book. My curiosity was immediately piqued by the first three lines when I opened the book in a perfect binding of 152 pages. These include a provocative portrait that the reader feels he would like to speak to.

I’m coming to my life late,
almost thirty years behind, dragging memories
like a ball and chain.

In the poem, “The Kiss,” the narrator refers to her original reservations about being romantic about nature, such as a tree. But then she recalls that when she was nine a tree was simply what it was, touchable and real. Then the poem reflects on “a kind of energy” that the tree imparts to the narrator an adult. Without saying so, the poet transfers the private thrill of being alive years later as a grown-up and years later after her own death.