You Can Make Your Own Rose

Title You Can Make Your Own Rose: Poems and Reflections

Author Andrea Nicki

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Description You Can Make Your Own Rose: Poems and Reflections is a bold, spiritually enriching exploration from a poet-philosopher of different forms of violence against girls and women experienced in her own life journey from a father-abused girlhood to midlife. This collection pushes the subject boundaries of poetry and engages our imaginations with unexpected shifts in thought, image and feeling. As the narrator adjusts to the difficult end of an employment relationship, there are spiritual lessons from flowers, trees, birds, turtles, and insects, keeping her on a path of self-expansion and growth. In her new beginning, the narrator is a more worldly caterpillar that has “a strut/bolder colors, bristles…[and] more trust” (from “Caterpillar”).  Painful past experiences are revisited with greater self-love and understanding, the narrator referring to herself as “an Artemis,” a protector and supporter of women, children and animals. With the affirmation of goddess spirituality, traditional holidays are reconfigured and earth-centered holidays celebrated in joyful circle dances. These are poems about  survival, strength, and resilience which inspire us, with our faithful perennials, “to love again and again” (from “Daffodils” ).

Full Cover and Endorsements

There is a thrilling sense of danger and delight in Andrea Nicki’s poems, as if she has crossed back behind enemy lines to smuggle out evidence of what has been done to her… and to all of us. These are poems of daring and of liberation. In the words of author Toni Cade Bambara, “The job of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” You Can Make Your Own Rose is irresistible. Carolyn Gage, playwright

This extraordinary collection of poetry from Andrea Nicki traces her journey from a father-abused girlhood to the heights of philosophy. Along the way the figure of a crow plays a shamanic role signaling death, assisting in ridding the department of a predator and bringing good tidings. Read this book and be changed by it. Susan Hawthorne, poet and author of Dark Matters

Andrea Nicki’s third collection of poetry takes the reader on a wild ride from child abuse and depression to the trials of academia to the wonders of resilient nature. In the final section, “Midway to Cronehood,” the poet touches down to earth, dancing with ease and joy. The best poems are nothing less than perfect. This book satisfies. Christine Stark, author of Nickels: A Tale of Dissociation

Read Book Review by Dr. Lila Moore.

About Author Andrea Nicki grew up in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Queen’s University and held a postdoctoral fellowship in feminist ethics and narrative medicine at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota. She has two poetry books published: Noble Orphan (2012) by Demeter Press and Welcoming (2009) by Inanna Publications. Her essays and poetry have appeared in Canadian and international publications. She currently resides in Vancouver, Canada, where she teaches private writing classes to people of all ages and university graduate courses in professional ethics. In recent years she has become more interested in dance, and does creative expressive dance, circle dance, Nia, and Zumba. www.andreanicki.com