Sisters in Time - by Rosemary Herbert (Paperback)

About the Book

Stemming from Herbert's work unearthing a pagan woman in a fourth-century, Roman-era cemetery in Winchester, England, Sisters in Time describes life on an archeological dig and gives new life to a woman from the distant past.

Book Synopsis

Stemming from poet Rosemary Herbert's work unearthing the burial of a young pagan woman in a fourth-century, Roman-era cemetery in Winchester, England, Sisters in Time provides hands-on descriptions of life on an archeological dig, and revels in ruminations on the strangely intimate and reverent experience of becoming acquainted - through skeletal remains and grave finds - with figures from the distant past. These poems celebrate the landscape and soundscape of the cathedral city where the River Itchen and its expansive water meadows overlooked by St. Catherine's Hill remain much as they were in Roman times. While offering whispers from the distant past as well as the resounding sound of Winchester Cathedral's bells, these poems tell the story of experiences as disparate as washing ancient bones and flirting in the pubs. Sisters in Time transports the reader to the juncture of then and now, where the lives of two women separated by centuries become as surely joined as one skeleton's mended bones. Here, the poet finds herself fated to give new life to her unknown sister in time, whose eternal resting place she revealed in the pursuit of archeological history.

Review Quotes

I enjoy and admire Rosemary Herbert's fresh way of thinking about the past with all the resemblances differences and revelations it offers the present. The one pagan girl buried along with 96 Christians. Shaped poems and sonnets, archaeology and mystery. I salute this poet's distinctive wit and intensity.

-ROBERT PINSKY, whose most recent book of poems is Proverbs of Limbo, served three terms as U.S. Poet Laureate. His video project can be explored at www.favoritepoem.org.

Marrying the archeologist's patience and with the poet's heightened gift of perception, Rosemary Herbert reminds us that all our histories are entangled in mystery, which is to say, all lives-past, present, and future-lay entangled, both the lives we know with certainty, and the ones we merely feel by way of their dusty bones. Somehow, these beautifully formed lines, despite the strictures of form and meter, suggest ideas and images ready to take flight. Although her voice carries a deceptively, gentle, bedside manner, she cleverly uses this stance to charm and disarm. Again and again, we are reminded to ask not for whom the bell tolls. Long established as one of our pre-eminent prose stylists, for Rosemary Herbert, this is something new, rare, and wonderful, this most profound of poetry debuts, marvelous, wholly present, and ours for the taking.

-JEFFREY LEVINE, whose latest book After the Party will be published in 2026 by Salmon Poetry, is the founder and artistic director of Tupelo Press.

In this brave and deeply original work, Rosemary Herbert invites us to befriend the past, hear history's call, and become more patient in the face of death. Mysteries appear before us, as the dead return to speak: "I'm still here, just listen." The poet brings a "tenderness akin to reverence" to her work of weaving wonder and washing skulls. Here we commune with the dead and find a way to rescue them from oblivion. We become witness to history, the archeologist's accomplices.

-DEBORAH LEIPZIGER, author of Story & Bone and Flower Map, is a poet, author, and advisor on sustainability and human rights issues.