Jo Ann Lordahl

These poems do not ask permission. In spare, fearless lines, Jo Ann Lordahl maps the interior life of a woman who has outlasted sorrow, chosen freedom over comfort, and learned to name her own loneliness without flinching. A stork struggles to swallow a fish too large. Silence rages. Love always costs more than it is worth. A free woman does what she wants - and keeps a wry, clear eye on the price.
Braided with Zen koans, hard-won aphorisms, and sudden grace, My Will Is the Wall spans decades of living and writing: grief without euphemism, desire without apology, wisdom without grandstanding. These poems arrived the way most true things do - through loss, through water-logged space, through being lost and found again. The result is a book that reads like a conversation with the most honest person in the room.
Spare. Exact. Unafraid. My Will Is the Wall is for readers who want poetry that does not perform - poetry that simply tells the truth.