Baba Summer: Part One

About Judy Hogan's writing:
"Hogan has been proving her ability for keen observation up to this point and continues to do so. Her descriptions bring the Haw River environment to life, puts us there to smell the clean-scented though muddy water and see the wildlife that comes near her as she sits, day after day, on the rock near the beaver dam in Saxapahaw as she writes – except when it rains. Within a few feet of her, geese swim, fish leap, large turtles surface to glance her way. This spell she casts is magical and comes from her strong sense of wonder, kindled by her close attention to this place.

Metaphors abound, the most basic the river as the current of feelings between her and this man. The river also stands for feeling at one with him. Both know rivers – he the Volga that flows through his city. Both rivers eventually reach the Atlantic Ocean. “We are hinged by ocean,” she writes. Finally, she identifies herself with the river. “I am a river. I must do what the river does, move on and on. I must love my banks.”

This work also testifies to Hogan’s fierce dedication to the practice of her gift for writing – a daily practice for well over 40 years that has resulted in a large body of work: journals, poetry, non-fiction, fiction. Publications include books of poetry as well as two mysteries. In This River, she writes of what it takes to keep writing: “It means giving close attention, making an extra effort every single day.” This means making choices. “We must choose carefully every day, balance within ourselves and within the day our needs, the needs of others, our most urgent tasks, and what we will let flow past us, never to return.” Her example and this advice could also inspire others to express their own voices, their unique gifts, while they still can for the river of time stops for no one." - Susan Broili, The Herald-Sun