Motherhouse, by Kathleen Jesme

Selected by Thylias Moss as Winner of the 2005 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize "This remarkable book-length meditation is part memoir, part spiritual diary, but first and foremost, pure poem. Set in and submitted to the rigors of convent life, these lyrics shine with winter light. Jesme writes: 'my flexible voice / my ecstasy / I learn that prayer / is either silence / or song.' Few writers are as adept as she is at listening to both."—Elaine Equi