Baptized Rage, Transformed Grief

Life comes with ups and downs, including the trauma of loss, death, and grief. Because such experiences are no respecter of persons, such trauma is a levelling agent. Every human being experiences some type of loss, from that of loved ones, relationships, jobs, and status to that of property, belief systems, and deteriorating health. Some loss appears seasonal; some expected and unexpected; others overwhelming and life changing. Baptized Rage, Transformed Grief is a cornucopia of poems that express deep, volcanic rage amid significant loss; such rage can be creative. The triumph of processing and experiencing a grief as deep as an ocean is that it results in transformation: the love that produced profound loss, sustains life. One is able to overcome after going through the angst and the agony. Baptized Rage, Transformed Grief is a dance of words, an invitation to give oneself permission to delve deeply into processing loss, to go through the process of grief, and come through as an authentic, whole self.


""Cheryl Kirk-Duggan's poems are a 'Vision' of how to 'clean up relationship with self,' as she writes. The musicality of the emotions intoned--between grief, joy, disappointment, fatigue, hope, sadness, resolve, faith, and more--lead readers through every feeling. The poems are a symphony, a prayer, a righteous rage against loss. I hope everyone reads these 'whispered prayers.'"" 
--Valerie Bridgeman, Poet and Professor


Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan is Professor of Religion at Shaw University Divinity School, Raleigh, North Carolina. Known for her 8P's as professor, preacher, prophet, poet, performer, priest, prayer warrior, and polyhistor, she is an avid practitioner of hot yoga, is a musician, loves to tend her roses, and has authored over twenty books and numerous articles. She co-authored Wake Up: Hip-Hop, Christianity, and the Black Church with Marlon Hall.