Doors Gates and Portals

About the Book

Lou Barrett's poetry collection, Doors, Gates and Portals, carries us into real life passages. The reader enters into ancient and mythical worlds to discover personal tensions that exist in Twentieth Century family life. Eve, constricted in the Garden of Eden, seeks freedom from safe gates confining her, Demeter, while missing her daughter, "still has a crush on the world." Orpheus held back from entering death, remains separated from those he loves; the poet is exiled from childhood, homesick for a beloved town and family. Here the ancient life passages - become here-and-now, contemporary dilemmas. The pages of Lou Barrett's poetry collection inform and surprise the adult reader. Her poetry conveys with clarity and insight her intense love for the blooming and battering world. She is willing to face what makes us human. Barrett invites her reader to see the world anew. The search seems as familiar as your own palms. This is the work of a wise and emphatic heart, ready for sobs, laughter doubt and mystery. She opens and closes the doors, gates and portals -invites an adult reader to enter new landscapes in a search for meaning. A surprising trip.

About the Author

Lou Barrett has enjoyed a rewarding career as teacher of literature and writing. In 2005, she was named Poetica magazine’s Poet of the Year. She has been honored at Wesleyan Uiversity by the Connecticut Council of English Teachers as Poet of the Year and is the recipient of the Connecticut Poetry Society’s Winchell Award. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Midtream, Connecticut River Review, Poetica magazine, Voices Israel and the National English Journal. Ms. Barrett’s publications include Clotheslines (1994), Homefronts (2002) and Connecting Flights (2006). Currently, her teaching series on Shakespeare is studied in high school classrooms. She and her husband raised their five children in Westport, Connecticut and are currently residents of Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.