Cold Spring Hallelujah explores the experience of being human in a world that often seems broken. Woven together by threads of healing, coming to terms with limitation, and deep reflection on what truly matters, poet Heidi Barr ‘06 M.A. issues an invitation to notice the fractured radiance that has the potential to be uncovered in each human life—and to claim the story that finds a foundation in love, of both self and neighbor.
Often in dialogue with the reader, she writes, “Claiming your story takes patience and persistence. It takes the sort of self compassion that might, one day, paint the sky with a splendor that can only be found by falling into the fractured radiance that defines what it means to be alive on planet earth. Be brave enough to look through a different lens if you need to, and explore an unfamiliar path. Let the stumbles and the joys and everything in between lead you toward hallelujah. I’ll meet you there.”
Chris La Tray, award winning author of “One-Sentence Journal” suggests that “Cold Spring Hallelujah isn’t so much a series of poetic meditations as it is a love letter to slowing down and taking notice of the healing gifts in the world around us. In a culture that seems so focused on the epic, on the larger than life, of ‘go big or go home,’ Barr suggests a different path. ‘Let’s do something different,’ she urges, ‘and accept the mundane.’ The gorgeous poems she shares as gentle suggestions in how we might do so make me grateful for her company in the trying.”