Familiar Journey, Poems

In this, her second volume of poetry, Peggy Pond Church pursues the course indicated in "Foretaste" first published in 1933 and now in a new edition from Sunstone Press. In "Familiar Journey" there is the same dark feminine principle further amplified in this collection of personal lyrics. Both the title poem and the rest of the contents show the author's progress along the road all must travel. Most of the images used in these poems reflect nature; most keen and sharp and freshly worded, signifying an observance of the small things that are individual, accurate and vivid. In the group of poems written about her children, Mrs. Church's phrasing is felicitous, and in these her personal lyric voice becomes universal. Rarely, too, will be found the sheer poetry which is in "Christ's Birthday." The utter simplicity of phrase, coupled with the strength and delicacy of imagery, in this one poem make it the most remarkable of the contents of the volume. Here is pure rightness of word; pure beauty of image. MARGARET HALLETT POND, who became known as PEGGY POND CHURCH, was born on a ranch in the Territory of New Mexico in 1903 at a place called Valmora. She was the daughter of Ashley Pond Jr., son of a wealthy Detroit attorney, and Hazel Hallett Pond, the granddaughter of a former governor of Arkansas who retired from politics to become a rancher in Mora County. As a teenager, Peggy was sent to boarding schools in California and Connecticut, and by the time she entered Smith College, her poetry had already achieved recognition and won awards. Peggy married Fermor Spencer Church in 1924 and they were the parents of three sons. She died October 23, 1986, a date of her "own choosing." In addition to "Familiar Journey," originally published in 1936, she is the author of "Foretaste" and "The Burro of Angelitos" (both in new editions from Sunstone Press), as well as "Ultimatum for Man" and "The House at Otowi Bridge" among others. In 2010, a children's story written by Peggy in the 1930s was published as a bilingual book titled "Shoes for the Santo Niño," and in 2011 the story was adapted to become a children's opera.