Abigail Morgan Prout, Walk Deep: Poems

Walk Deep is a collection of poems, written as an offering to the forest path that the author has walked every day on her small island since the beginning of the COVID pandemic. Inspired as much by the words of poets like Mary Oliver, Ada Limon and Padraig O Tuama, and David Whyte as by the island songs of the Salish Sea in the PNW, the poems within arise from a deep love of the natural world and call attention to the power that a familiar outer landscape has — to be all at once, companion, mirror, compass, and divination tool for our inner landscape.

Walk Deep is divided into eight sections, each corresponding to a different physical landmark on the path walked. Each of these markers represents a different focus in life. For instance, "Sapling Grove" offers stories of children, "Boughs that Reach but Cannot Touch" recalls memories of drifting relationships, and "Grotto: Rustle of Sword Ferns" celebrates the growing power of women, etc. The book is inspired by revisiting a physical place daily, and also about going deeper into aspects of ourselves that we often leave unexplored. The structure of the book offers in itself an invitation to a walking and writing practice that readers can then engage with themselves in turn.

Abigail Morgan Prout was finalist for the 2020 Homebound Poetry Contest. She is an advocate for poetry as a medium of cultivating professional leadership. Abigail now lives with her family on Lopez Island where she was raised.

* Online registration closes one hour prior to the event. Walk-ins will be welcome if there are available spaces.

Host or Publisher Village Books in Fairhaven