Strange Bodies: Poems - Paperback

by Deni Naffziger (Author), Mark Hackworth (Photographer)

"Naffziger's poetry boldly emancipates the soul from its worldly shell." Kirkus Reviews

Just as Elizabeth Bishop wrote of her initial self-realization that "you are an I, you are an Elizabeth," we all come to a similar awakening, an awareness of the physical body and our own consciousness. Over the years, we may begin to question our understanding of the world and our place in it, which awakens the spirit, and we find ourselves longing to unite the physical and metaphysical. Strange Bodies takes us on a journey-using story, science, metaphor, and myth-that brings us full circle to the essence of who we are and how closely we are connected to each other and the natural world.

The final section of the book, "Still Life," is a biography of existence through thought and image. Completed during the pandemic and initially exhibited at the University of Pikeville, in Pikeville, Kentucky, with exhibitions following at The Secret Studio (Columbus, Ohio) The Dairy Barn Arts Center (Athens, Ohio)), and Praxis Gallery (Minneapolis, Minnesota), "Still Life" is a collaboration between Naffziger and her husband, photographer Mark Hackworth, which addresses aesthetics and beauty and what those concepts inspire in the day to day. "Still Life" includes nineteen black and white photographs.