New Mexico Magazine, August 2008
Review

Poetry

The New Sun

by Cynthia West
Sunstone Press
124 pages, paperback, $16.95

Star people, shine out of the night the way
you always have. Lend your immensity to
every pebble on the garden path.
Appear simply, with nothing but your
     radiance,
asking no more favor than the wind rustling
wild plum leaves in the dark.
          ---from “Cast Spears to Crack the Shroud”

If the universe gave birth to its soul, and if that soul were given human form -- a voice, an expression of emotion, the ability to look upon and admire its own cosmic beauty -- that soul would surely move within Cynthia West. When speaking of the rain, the stones, the wildlife, the days that come and go like a melodic breeze, West breathes energy into moments that at first glance seem still and lifeless.

It’s no surprise, then, that this Santa Fe Renaissance woman works in photography, pottery, painting and music -- her poetry embodies a symphony of artistries, and her reality is one of shifting concepts and timeless truths, the kind we ache to explore.'

The New Sun is dedicated simply to “the healers”, and fortunate is the reader who picks up this title.