About Blood Trail @ Insynthesis.com

"Florence McGinn's poetry shapes the core of human vitality. She paints with the ease of Chinese brush strokes to place the archetypes and lush metaphors of human existence into her reader's hearts. The poetry goes beyond the definition of mere words written in meter and syntax to become part of the organic orchestra of human desires." -Sujay Pandit

BLOOD TRAIL is a full length collection of poetry by Florence McGinn.
Its first Pennywhistle Press printing was in 2000, and its second printing executed in 2004.

Trails of personal and poetic meaning converge into universality in Blood Trail. Truth emerges richer than the isolated elements of its sources. Such verity bears universality's ancient patina as well as autonomy's tonalities, for upon the blood trail's quest, dread is evoked, but freedom's confirmation is sought.

The initial Sources section of Blood Trail delves into "this bit of time . . . wandering away down an avenue of years." It is a past built upon "Mother's smallest/ movements, like the fragrant peeling/of a fresh tangerine, an ancient,/winged language of metaphors built/on an inner syntax matching my own." A sense for the inescapable nature of the past is embraced. There is acceptance in knowing "that we were not free at the beginning/and not given freedom at the end."

Yet, a definition of darkness is not the purpose of Blood Trail. Although cognizant of alternate pathways of loss cross and mark the blood trail, this manuscript seeks to examine a living, distinctly female, pulse. Blood Trail traces a beating pulse along the private trail of being a woman, a daughter, a mother, and a lover. It reaches into the blood-depths of a personal, Asian heritage set firmly upon a pathway of American experiences.

Poetry's roots deepen into universal experience as the feminine and Asian-American experiences are affirmed. The poet bends to small details of life, to the "soft heartbeat/I should not be able to hear" and "the tiny sounds which beckon/inward toward my own heartbeat." And as the poet finds the womanly root is "blue black in its heaviness," there remains, too, a willingness "to feel for the edges of the rock/with my groping fingertips." There is discovery that self and union are the keys to universal metaphor. Personal search with its universal potential is pivotal to the penetration of the "crimson richness of blood's female rituals" to be followed like a drumming pulse of life . . . "toward the certitude,/the throbbing, wet center, of a language flowing and/clotted with vermilion moonlight."

The archetypal union of personal and universal upon the blood trail links with myth. Blood Trail seeks intellectual and emotional assimilation of archetypal creation. Powerful wholeness occurs when intellect operates in conjunction with emotion, for the mythic principal unifies rather than separates. An intimate price is paid for transcendence, for "The price was blood,/heart blood,/menstrual blood,/birthing blood." The imaginative process is essential to unity, and "Words connect blood,/follow its inward, throbbing streams/to the blossoming mouth/of time's kingdom."

Synthesis of haiku's tautness and youthful, feminine experience drive the Moments segment. The majority of Blood Trail is written in free verse poetry. Moments explores English language haiku. Modern English haiku has evolved to the fascinating point, where it breaks from the traditional, Japanese 5-7-5 syllable structure as well as its established dependence upon classical imagery. Departures in English language haiku occur while seeking to maintain the true spirit of haiku writers and theorists such as Basho, Buson, Shiki, and Issa. The integrity of tautness remains integral, but syllable count no longer is pivotal. Profound elements of haiku essence such as karumi (lightness) and sabi (state of loneliness) remain critical. Equally integral to the Momentssegment is the influence of the rich sensuality of ancient, non-haiku, female writers such as Ink Dark Moon's Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu. In their work, erotic intensity creates an element of sensual consciousness filled with truthfulness and clarity. The haiku segment of Blood Trail seeks to evoke sensual integrity. Within certain moments of human life, a potential for transcendence lies. Perhaps such pure transcendence lies in the instant when "on your lips/I bend to taste/a wafer of moonlight." From the elegance of tradition and evolution, from nature and feminine sensuality, an approach to haiku is made in Blood Trail to capture an amplification of sensuous beauty and meaning.

Extension of meaning and closure in Blood Trail occurs in its Living Trail portion. In this segment, there is departure, celebration, and understanding. It is a time to look back, to savor the present, and to acknowledge the celebration that comes even in the final cycles, for "The Kokanee have lived beyond safe borders./Their bodies are the bread of tomorrow." A feminine trail of blood is sought which moves through the mobility of mind and experience to open into a breadth capable of making individual statement as well as universal expression. There is, in closure, a recognition and affirmation of shadow and light, the ordinary and the sacred, the past and the future, for wholeness is the transcendent insight and goal, and blood pays for all.

Florence McGinn's publisher, Pennywhistle Press, has negotiated with the Smithsonian's Washington DC Freer Gallery to obtain the use of Ch'iu Ying's painting, LANDSCAPE IN THE MANNER OF LI T'ANG for the book's cover.

Excerpts from Blood Trail are featured on a CD-ROM published in China by Centrix Technology, Nankai University, and GKE. That CD-ROM has been created as a teaching tool for educators in China. It incorporates readings as well as multimedia interpretations and lessons plans incorporating pieces from Blood Trail. The CD-ROM highlights the technology-assisted concepts of learner empowerment, the emerging technologies, authentic process learning, and innovation that are the fundamental keystones of the GKE Innovative Learning System's deployment in China. Also, featured on Empowering Electronic Velocity CD-ROM are the poetry and multimedia work of Florence McGinn's former student, Sujay Pandit as well as the interactions and support of key, student innovators, Douglas Gorton, Dheera Venkatraman, and Barbara Witmer.

BLOOD TRAIL (ISBN 0-938631-34-9 paper) can be obtained through your bookstore, from on-line bookstores Barnes and Nobles, Borders, or Amazon, or from the publisher: Pennywhistle Press, 930 Baca Street, Suite 12, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, ordering at 505-982-0066.