Sisters of the Protectress—A Creation Story by Darlene St. Georges and Alexandra Fidyk

 

Lavish here. Let wash. We wee humans need images adequate to hold us open into this earth body of ours, and here they are, written out. Spaced. Placed. Hoarse cawed. This very same body as the Crows crow, the plants plant, the air offers. Sun-drenched jaws. Bears themselves dreaming us over ambles downhill. This book brooks words. Images. Dreams. darlene’s. alex’s. mine. yours, readers. Watch out, though. These possessive cases can easily betray us. These words and their readings are co-inhabitants with the full scatters and splays of breaths, of wonders. These seeds up yesterday morning, little heralds. Listen. This book will help you smell the sun in them. Let the spaces last exactly as long as you need. Slow over them. Let them be exacting. Me. My grandson in arms. Me in his, too. Look! Crow. Bear. Seed-springings. Thank you for this gathering up. I gather up, go plant.

–David Jardine, Professor Emeritus in Retiracy, currently undergoing an Early Childhood Education

 

Let yourself be suspended and traverse the land and sky through this creation story, Sisters of the Proctress, marinated in the poetic and primordial. St. Georges and Fidyk invite us into dwelling in worlds between the interior, imaginal, primal, and sacred where the reader inhabits the terrain where spirit and body thrive. Here, one can dream themselves alive as they say, and ruminate in layers of wisdom and insight where the ancestors’ live and hope resides. This poetic book is a journey in and of itself where an aesthetic sensibility touches the heart and reminds one that place is imbedded within mystery and keeps calling us home to awe. Beautifully and sensitively written and designed, they call forth what the bodysoul yearns for.

–Celeste Snowber, PhD. Professor/Poet/Performer, author of Embodied inquiry: Writing, living and being through the body. Simon Fraser University

 

In Sisters of the Protectress: A Creation Story, Darlene St. Georges and Alexandra Fidyk weave together stories of Bear Woman and Crow Mother to, as they say, “cross the celestial veil to ignite the imaginative and mythological realms.” In Crow’s return and Bear’s reawakening, imaginaries appear and disappear as exquisite voices.  Evocative drawings alongside the spare poetic text create mirrored, shadowed lives—giving testimony and bearing witness. “Not everything that goes / leaves a trail” St. Georges and Fidyk write, concluding “we need more Storytellers.” In this gorgeous hybrid format, these lyrical sister-voices give shape to that process.

–Laura Apol, author of A Fine Yellow Dust, winner of the Midwest Book award for poetry

 

In this visual|poetic creation story, Darlene St. Georges and Alexandra Fidyk pay homage to Bear Woman and Crow Mother. This “hybridity of fur and feather” aligns with the “imperceptible rhythms / that ignite imaginaries.” Narrative and lyricism combine gracefully. This evocation deepens our connection with earth and sky, waking and dreaming, inner and outer worlds. And we emerge humbled and humane. “Calling the Ancestors—” and at once the “Ancestors are calling—” Images of Crow and Bear spaciously move with words and phrases to create a powerful sense of renewal. “Unearthing tongues between worlds,” Sisters of Protectress draws on creation-centred and Jungian insights.

 

Open this book to be pulled into a story from the natural and archetypal worlds which will ignite your spirit.

–Sheila Stewart, author of The Shape of a Throat, University of Toronto Mississauga