Ghost Woman, A Rising
In Ghost Woman, Crystal Simone Smith explores the long and deep connections between nature, personhood, ancestry, and trauma through haiku and haibun. Separated into five sections, the book emphasizes the way social bonds and landscapes are reflected in and through the environment. Smith brings her experiences with race, motherhood, and poetry into conversation with the five elements, Wind (Fu), Earth (Chi), Water (Sui), Fire (Ka), and Void (Ku) to take readers through an introspective haiku journey, an exploration of the nature of the self as well as the nature of the wider world.
Balancing shattering grief and ordinary moments of love and trauma with survival, Ghost Woman weaves a narrative verse of single motherhood, bearing witness, and carrying your history with you. The poems in Ghost Woman invite the reader to be with nature and themselves more intentionally.