Early morning 22 6 12
This is the foreword by Phibby Venable my favorite contempary poet;


Chrissie Morris Brady, welcomes us openly into her world with this
compelling new book of poetry, In Life, Insane, In Love. Beautifully
written, with a moving honesty, Chrissie gifts us with the opportunity
to travel on a strong, sometimes painful, journey into her inner and outer world.
In the poem, My Mother Loves Me, the poet  sardonically insists:

I can say nothing right for her
I am rude, ungrateful,
And rewrite history
Where she smelt of roses

No shouting at me, no threats
Not biting me, not calling me whore
There was no conflict ever
And she never kidnapped me

Chrissie goes along with the scenario her mother paints with a skeptical
humor deeply tinged with sadness. The poet's pain is palpable.
However, in the poem,  Sandbanks Beach Winter, there is a sense of beauty
and childlike wonder as she watches joyfully from the beach:

Daring in the carpet of wetness I dance
back as the flow rushes in
Gulls screech 'mine! mine! ' overhead
But hover like stalled aeroplanes
cries which fit with the peaceful roar
of breakers rolling in

One poem , The Planet, ends with a cry for compassion and love to return
to a world grown too violent. There is a plea that the world will open up and see before
it is too late, the wrongs visited on children, animals, and Mother Earth, herself. She
tries to encourage change as she writes:

an astronaut once said
that if politicians could see
the earth from outer space
they would gasp in wonder

Chrissie's writing has great insights and heart. It holds a cry of fine honesty
and beauty. It is the work of a survivalist. For above and beyond
all else, Chrissie's work has a strength that has been tested and a will that
has triumphed over an astonishingly hard time. It is a book of gentleness mingling
with the heart of a lioness.

In the last poem in the book, Allihies, a moving portrayal of a coastal parish in the
west of County Cork, Ireland, Chrissie allows us to glimpse this often harsh land through
her eyes.

I feel so honored by her words, and truly blessed that Phibby was pleased to write it. I hope I live up to it.