sclerosis. In this book, I chose to explore
human physicality and the medicinal
herbs which offer solace. Working with
the plants was a metaphorical way of
making peace with the general human
condition and my specific disease.
Mortar & Pestle will be published by
New Rivers Press in the Fall of 2006.
Comfrey Marigold Jimsonweed Rue Milk Thistle
"Lisa Gill’s gutsy and visionary with both feet on the planet... Indeed, it is the language and
energy of the ecstatics, rubbed across feminism, all the more remarkable when you
consider the physical circumstances of the writing. Neruda and Mirabai run off together.
Anne Sexton meets the Buddha on the road. Emily D. steps out with Dylan Thomas.
These poems crush and macerate the best of the inner against the best of outer.... Mortar
& Pestle isn’t only about illness, it’s harsh, honest life itself and these poems are the good
medicine."
From the preface by Joan Logghe, author of Rice
"This book of poems by Lisa Gill is a response to a diagnosis of a serious disease, which
she is battling courageously, clinically as well as through these superb lyrical meditations.
In her case the disease is multiple sclerosis, but it could be almost any other because the
sweep of the poetry is so broad. The language is clear, evocative. Gill gets down to basics:
"You'll find fossils / from the Cretaceous era, roots / going back centuries. // Time gets
under your nails. // The earth is fecund, ripe / with life and death, / more recent litter."
(Gingko). This work is humble and magisterial, witty and wise. The guide here is nature,
getting to the herbs of healing, against the body's dismantling. Brilliant imagery in a
thoroughly brilliant book."
Gene Frumkin, author of The Old Man Who Swam Away and Left Only His Wet Feet
“Lisa Gill shares her struggle, her joy, her search for what herbs offer both physically and
spiritually in a poetic journey of botanical discovery which reveals the human psyche, as if
peeling the layers of an onion. Visions sprout from the strength of feelings conveyed in her
search. Reap perspective as Lisa has. Gratitude is the reward."
Steven Foster, author of 101 Medicinal Herbs
"Expansive and richly structured, Lisa Gill’s Mortar & Pestle is where she grinds out the
unbreakable terms of existence and concocts a poultice for the human soul. These poems
pulverize assumptions to reveal new paths to the oldest of matterings: Why are we here?
How do we cope with limitations of the physical? How do we accept the unknowable? Hard
material for the apothecary. But this is a poetry of engagement–great on its feet,
relentless, honest, marvelously inventive. Lisa Gill knows how to redirect the rain “into
unexpected channels of exuberance.” She also knows everything she plants could end up
being just another crop for the hail. Either way she is “receptive to the unintentional.” She
is looking for “the next open space,” foraging for opportunities. Her integrity is one of
example. We are called to this book. “Chance something,” she cajoles. Go there."
--Mitch Rayes, writer and composer of Soft Prison, Reckless Faith Records