Noreen Norris

Caught Heart, Poems Noreen Norris 1st edition

Caught Heart offers a poignant look at how heart and mind cannot be separated. Noreen Norris's words integrate the familiar with the surreal: conflicted pleasures of childhood; the power of illness, death, and rebirth--seals in a flooded basement, Jews on the Madonna's lap. She pits the tenderness in people and in nature against hardness--our nobility against our dark sides. Exploring daily life, the strength needed in times of chaos, and the return of joy, Norris speaks a vivid truth. ''Scrambling down the mountain through wailing wind / I'm forced to think of cherry blossoms.''