Consider the World Tree

her mantling green
our swaddling gown dismantled
an iron word falling
 felling, disrupting
old growth's primal ground...

Susan McCaslin

Canadian poet and literary scholar Susan McCaslin lives in Langley, British Columbia. She is the author of seventeen books of poetry and ten chapbooks.

In Consider, (Aolus House, 2023), Susan explores her evolving experience of the figure of Jesus in relation to the wisdom teachers and activists of diverse spiritual traditions. By turns mystical and playful, provocative and insightful, many of the poems have ekphrastic inspirations.

In my conversation with Susan we focus on the connection between mystical experience and activism which I sense as themes of the book.

We also discuss Susan's role as editor of Walking Into God by E.D. Blodgett which was released in spring 2024 by Farleigh Dickinson University Press. Susan also reads from Walking Into God.

Carole Harmon, Writers Radio producer


edited by Susan McCaslin
Celebrated Canadian poet, E.D. Blodgett's final book of poetry

Author of over thirty books of poetry, and winner of many awards, Ted Blodgett's Walking Into God was written during his struggle with terminal cancer. It was published posthumously, produced as a labour of love by his friends, fellow artists, and contributors Susan McCaslin, Sheila Martineau, and Yukiko Onley.

"What interests me in poetry is the interplay of language, the page, and silence. Heaven falls out of words because possibility is in the page, another kind of heaven; I wonder if that's the only heaven we are given to know in life". 

Edward Dickinson (Ted) Blodgett

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