“After months of raw pain and no sleep

when each day rises above me

like a precipitous mountain,

suddenly my spirit returns.”

These uplifting words begin Marguerite Guzman Bouvard’s poem, Renewal, which appears in Hope Whispers.  “Renewal reveals that living with chronic illnesses teaches a person to rejoice in the moments of feeling well,” she said. “In other words, it teaches us that true happiness is made of perspective; it comes from within and is related to suffering.”

Marguerite Guzmán Bouvard is the author of numerous articles on illness and spiritualityand six books of poetry.  Her latest poetry book, The Unpredictability of Light, was published in 2009 with blurbs by Nahomi Shihab Nye and Floyd Skloot.  She has also written 11 non-fiction books in the fields of human rights, grief, illness and women’s issues, including Mother inAll But Name: Grandmothers, Aunts, Sisters, Friends, Strangers, Nannies and Healing: A Life With Chronic Illness, whichwas published by University Press of New England. She is a Resident Scholar atthe Center for Research on Women, Brandeis University.

Hope Whispers is available through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com and www.whisperingangelbooks.com.