six poems for healing with amara hollow bones

six poems for healing is a poetry chapbook created to honour the healing power of the earth and her many beings. It is a simple gathering of a few of my poems presented together with the wild and intimate drawings of my young friend amara hollow bones.

In May 2021, amara was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive type of breast cancer which in their words, “is a fitting type cuz i’m a rare and tenacious witch.” amara opted for a variety of different treatments to build resilience and although she cleared many obstacles she passed away in June 2022. Her journey was “devastatingly okay, heartbreakingly beautiful, peaceful, terrifying and profound.”

$12CAD / $10US (plus mailing costs)
To order copies, please email money transfer funds to dianeperazzo@outlook.com or text: 613 324 5179. Paypal: Wordsmith Writing and Editing Services

amara hollow bones was a queer mixed media textile artist and tattoo artist of Scottish Irish Welsh and Cornish descent based in Canadian-occupied Attawandaron, Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Lenaape territories of the Great Lakes and the Karuk, Konomihu, Yurok territories of the Klamath River in California, with many travels in between. amara’s work was born from an intimacy with the earth and place—the mountains, rivers, streams, and forests through the seasons, reflecting the quiet magic alive everywhere. her drawings were expressions coming from legacies of witch burnings, colonization and displacement; stories of healing of trauma, ancestry, self and community through the return to earth: of the still thriving beautiful forests, of the wounded places that no longer exist in the ways they were once known, and of the resilience of the in-between. They are spells, songs, stories and prayers for our return to wildness, as we heal the connection to our instincts, our bodies, sexuality, and our magic–illuminating our ever-present connection with the cycles of the earth, our bodies and the moon.

diane perazzo is a writer, editor, poet, tarot reader, Reclaiming eco witch, mother and grandmother. she lives in Ottawa Canada on unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin, St Lawrence Iroquoian and Anishinabewaki, people as well as innumerable plant and animal beings. for many years, diane wrote and edited health resources about mental health promotion, tobacco control, HIV/AIDS and other social and health issues. more recently, as she eases into her crone years, her writing has become focused on crafting verses and stories that strive to echo the magical and mythic voices of the living land and her beings, particularly plants and winged ones.

^{excerpt from ambient at beltaine}

<sup>i am ambient
and i blend
as i move forward to the past
and backward to the future

my life is a chance
a shared expression
of all i wished for and never can be</sup>