Quicksilver of the Heart

Invite these poems to companion your heart and let them stretch your soul.

Brendas spare, simple words say big things. In this very intimate collection we

are offered messages of lifes mysteries in a language as clear as any fine spiritual

direction. Throbbing through the poems is her Celtic sensibility, offered in the

calm dialect of a sagacious heart bred to thrive in Newfoundland weather. Taken

as talismans of transformation, these poems beg rereading, like stories retold over

strong tea to take off the chill and to strengthen the heart. We are whispered secret

courage to engage life, open-eyed and ready. The stanzas give voice to the quiet

satisfactions of honest, open-hearted awareness and offer a travelers guide into a

soulscape both delicate and wild. From a knowing of winters graced grit to the full

out exhilaration of the greening again spring, Brenda opens to us the experience of

a woman stepping into elder-hood well versed in living close to the heart of things.

Look, she says to us, despite any initial evidence to the contrary, small moments are

thresholds into soul size transformations and no less than lifes best gift. (Gabriele

Uhlein OSF, author and artist, Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen)