The Wild Lily Institute
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Welcome . . .
New Media
New Designs!
"Our designs create art from poetry."
View and select from hundreds of art patterns and textures in Emily Isaacson's new design store. Varied frames available to match dozens of fine art photographs taken by the author.
Now Open!
New Book!
The Quiet Pattern
. . .
A Memoir
by poet Emily Isaacson
Coming 2024.
O Linen: undertunic of the sand,
tri-coloured, penchant, hanging from the land;
our stitches have reclothed you, and we found
you hanging by a mermaid’s silver thread.
Emily Isaacson, Love in the Time of Plague
Messages:
Newsletter coming out September 7.
Get out the digs, and check our Events page for upcoming events.
Weekly sequential poem will feature a narrative poem by Lilith Street starting next Sunday: read here
" ' Behold, I make all things new." Then he said, 'Write these words down'" (21:5). Hearing this in the monk's choir, I gasped. No wonder this chapter is Dickinson's favorite. Christ's commission may well have helped her define her calling, her vocation as a poet (and I would clam, one of the great biblical interpreters of the nineteenth century.) I gasped again, as a phrase entered my mind: " Ezra Pound thundered,'make it new,' and Jesus said, 'I will." . . .
Dragons within, dragons without. Evil so pervasive that only the poetry of the apocalypse can imagine its defeat . . . We will sing a new song.
Kathleen Norris, The Cloister Walk (1996)
Quote
icons like saints
in anthem, breathing
through the stained glass:
tracing the water
outline
of the sky.
EMILY ISAACSON
Author and Poet Emily Isaacson
"I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord."
Psalm 118:17 KJV
Emily Isaacson is known for her lucid and dramatic poetry, as well as her astute vision to use revelation to make information, images, and words relevant and meaningful. Her use of images and soundtracks to create movies during Covid lockdown has contributed to some of her poetry being put to sound and images for her viewers.
See her YouTube here.
Ginger Lily Needlepoint
Antiques are the haunts of yesteryear.
The solid walnut narrow chest of drawers
contained the treasures of Victorian time:
ginger lily needlepoint spoke
of painstaking measures;
a velvet autograph book,
enamelled with its signatures
of well-wishers and sweethearts, rose
and fell with the swoons of youth.
There lay a pile of faded photographs,
children without smiles,
spinster women in black, and men with top hats.
In velvet, a set of vintage silver teaspoons
and sugar tongs tarnished with neglect,
an antique fan aged, embossed with memories
and pewter swirls; a pocket watch,
precisely stopped at half-past nine.
Emily Isaacson, Victoriana
Self portraits by Isaacson
Emily Isaacson is a poet with both Canadian and American influences, who is a dual citizen. Her prolific verse and multimedia art bring poetry to life: she has created over 100 videos of her poetry, and hosted a weekly poetry movie on YouTube during Covid lockdown. In the last seventeen years her sites have been visited over 2 million times by more than 45 countries. She is also an arts advocate who has taught on Creative Writing. She has a Bachelor of Science from Bastyr University in Seattle and is currently the Director of the Wild Lily Institute, founded to preserve her poetry and legacy.
She now invites you to her cache of over 50 photos, taken by herself over a time span of 15 years.
All photos are under copyright by WLI.
The Fleur-de-lis
What is Emily Isaacson's claim to fame?
__________________
She was chosen to write the sacred manuscript of The Fleur-de-lis to commemorate the marriage of Prince William to Kate Middleton in 2011.
_____________________
This historical book of Canadiana literature contained over 800 poems in English and French and was published in three volumes.
____________________
Not only that, it was her first real publication of her work, and took her over 5 years to complete. She claims this divine invitation was given to her by God and that it is a prophetic and anointed work.
____________________
The Clay Road
Emily Isaacson's writing stylised poetry while subsisting on olive oil is world-renowned for its poignant and lyrical style and fluent use of versified language. Return to the earth and its olives with her series Clay Road. . .
Quote
"But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences;
they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh."
-- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
"The New World sounds its horn to all its evangelists, antagonists and enthusiasts, in bold claim of the English language and all its endeavors. There are those who will rise up. This new renaissance of post-modern verse varies in its expense from page to page, and yet, no expense is spared. The jewels of the world vary greatly, but few are as rare a find as this trilogy of works of
the Black Saint. . . "
Preface to Victoriana (2015)
ISAACSON POEM
I listened from out the little window
to see if I could hear your song
in the lane,
and when the familiar whistle sounded,
even my dulcet heart gave way.
There was the song of us
that whistled on the moor
before the seasons began,
when we knew we’d be together
even in a foreign land.
There was the wood
that burned dry in the hearth;
I took a coin from my purse,
and counted the face on it
memorizing the moments your touch
reached out in healing.
There was the building of
something new amid the old,
a search for independence,
a need to voice a referendum.
The old country calls me home.
Its architecture has not yet crumbled.
I wave from my window
and write Scottish poems
to the sonorous bagpipe,
the fire, burning, burning cinders.
From the poem "Burning Cinders"
Victoriana
What is the length of the
complete works?
Dying Swan
Isaacson's complete works includes over 1500 individual poems in chronological order, ranging from age 13 to her most recent works. The book is at present approximately 1,200 pages. She is currently taking offers from traditional publishers.
2 Million Visits to WLI
1 6 4 , 1 2 1 visitors
2, 0 6 1, 2 2 3 visits to all Wild Lily sites.
P O E T I C W I L D F L O W E R S
Take courage and find solace in poetic inspiration ...
Visit our page with a sequential poem:
(Posted on Sunday)
Recommended Reading
List of the Month has now ended
with the pandemic.
Toward the replanting of a land—
once deserted, cold, and barren, still;
now citrus, and the olive, myrtle stand,
our pride in the distance, through the hills
spilling fine perfume and virgin oil.
Early songs still rise from temple mount
amid the prayers, centuries old toil.
--Emily Isaacson, The Replanting
House of Rain
A VOETELLE SITE
Emily Quote
Whisper to me in the wood
of Beauty and her darkling speech . . .