prayers not meant for heaven
Nan Seymour’s debut collection of poetry, prayers not meant for heaven includes 24 poems which Nan writes “were never meant to ascend.” They read like tinctures, infused with hope, humility, and healing.
Spare in form but rich in tenderness, reverence, and connection, prayers not meant for heaven is a devotional for our times, a spiritual field guide for the heart.
Details:
5” x 7” softcover book
50 pages
Poetry
An unabashedly queer descendent of Utah pioneers, Nan Seymour is deeply smitten with life in all forms, including scrub oak forests, vultures, and wild violets. Years ago she created River Writing, a community-held writing practice, to foster voice and encourage authentic connection. The practice also resists the tyranny of perfectionism and breaks through walls of isolation.
The chambers of her heart are occupied by her daughter Beatrice, her husband Mustafa, beloved human friends, and Sophie, her border collie/lab companion. She is devoted to community and dares to hope that our collective participation in human evolution is helping to tip the balance of the cosmos towards kindness and even love. Find her at: nanseymour.com.
Interested in hosting Nan for a reading of her work, or interviewing her about her writing?
Praise for prayers not meant for heaven
These are the prayers we most need right now—prayers for courage, accountability, awe and uncertainty. Poem prayers that link us more deeply to each other and the miraculous world we inhabit. Spare prayers as essential as bone. Through the brittle, the failed, the broken, Nan Seymour’s love of life shines through.
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of Hush and Naked for Tea
• • • • • • •
In a world of commerce and confusion and often reaching for the wrong thing, it's poetry we must turn to—over and over—the language of beauty and heartbreak that cracks us open and which reminds us—especially when we feel lost—that we are still here, and that we have a job to do—which is to live in praise, awakening and humility.
Thank goodness for the work of Nan Seymour, a poet who has the courage to journey to the land of broken and beautiful things, a writer who has sacrificed her protective coating, and has allowed herself to be stung by the pain of a ravaged world. These prayers are her gift to us, a reminder of our alliance with one another, with the planet, and with ourselves. There is forgiveness and hope on every page.
–Laurie Wagner, 27 Powers