Wonderful words from poet berni janssen for the launch of Cow...

Susan Hawthorne is an able herdswoman, a wordswoman.

She herds words, her words, other women's words

and they become poems, books, anthologies.

This book, this new book of poems, by Susan, is a real "Cow"

 - a beautiful cow, a cow that yields full-cream, full-bodied milk

 - a cow whose teats are tugged and language, philosophy, myth

froth forth

 - a wise old cow, who has seen the tragedy of loss, of injustice, of hate

- a ruminating cow, turning the cud of living, into fulsome observation and shapely insight

- a thoughtful cow, in whose calm brown eyes revolve the mysteries of universe

(the mysteries rest ...and then unravel)

- a melancholy cow, skimmed by memory,

- a playful cow, whose agile tongue juggles sounds, words, rhythms

tasting, testing, tantalising: slippages, juxtapositions, quick wit

and the low, the low, the low

of all night love

what a cow she is.

cow,  gau, coo, kwin queen...

Susan has a herd of cows,

beautiful kine,

kind kine

long-tongued loving kine

telling tales,

from myth to modernity

the ancient made contemporary,

speaking of:

ideas and love,

people and particularities

hope and injustice

women and their lives

this scholarly romp roams

lands, peoples, time and cultures, weaves

colloquial living, earth-heart, home-speak,

philosophical conundrums,

acrobatic feats, celestial feast,

many tongue, many mind, many hand

all multiple, diverse, a broad...

a real broad of a cow

these cows have histories

they go way back

not that they - the cows, their histories,

 have always been told:

some lost, some denied, some hidden,

some erased, suppressed, attacked

and these cows, kind kine, queens

now

have much to tell

in their own way,

each in their own way

never think that a herd of cows will adhere to one path

of form, or genre, or language

each cow, a queen, who will tell

in her own way, a story which

needs to be told

of earth, heart and hardship

of sensual delights, and longlove nights

an aerial cow, a star cow

what a Queen she is

pay your coins for a "Cow",

now!

This 'cow' is launched,

she will be over the moon!