Uniting vivid imagination with adroit verbal artistry, the poems in Pomegranate Heart present the stations, signposts and pivot-points on a fraught spiritual journey. Amidst threatening or beguiling enchanters, lovers and demons, a central figure likened to the vulnerable goddess Persephone moves transformatively in the direction of a more confident, armoured Athena. Arcane, alluring images and mythic lore from both pagan and Christian sources alternately bewilder, tempt and guide her along a path that leads from fearful danger toward a psychic healing linked to the prospect of ultimate salvation.

Praise for Clara Blackwood’s previous work:

Clara Blackwood’s poetry creates images and patterns that embody the texture of reality. She makes structures incarnating the complexity of consciousness and the transfiguring power of memory. Her poems present the juxtaposition of the ancient and the modern, the appearance of the sacred in the mundane, the relation of nature to mind.
Len Gasparini, Götterdämmerung

Each poem is a rite of passage between the pillars of light and shadow where old and new worlds converge. Blackwood distills fresh insights with clarity and conviction; and although the path is often perilous, we are assured ‘beauty persists,’ that magic and mystery are at the root of creation.
Lea Harper, Shadow Crossing

Born and raised in Toronto, Clara Blackwood is a poet and visual artist. She is the author of two previous books of poetry, Subway Medusa (2007) and Forecast (2014), both with Guernica Editions. Her work has appeared in Canadian and international journals. She currently lives in Thornhill, Ontario.