Luci Shaw- Reversing Entropy

The poet's own words best describe the heart of this pinnacle collection of new work by beloved writer Luci Shaw:

Entropy: A measure of the molecular disorder, or randomness, of a system, its lack of order or predictability, resulting in a gradual decline into disorder.

Our universe, and the systems within it, constantly shift from their created states of order towards disorder, or chaos. The second law of thermodynamics asserts that entropy, or disorder, always increases with time. Creative human activities such as art, architecture, music, story or film are human efforts to halt and reverse this loss of meaning. Thus, smaller systems, like individual poems, become highly ordered as they receive energy from outside themselves, from the poet. They reverse entropy because they are moving from a state of disorder (all the random ideas, words and phrases available to the writer) into an orderly form designed by the writer to create meaningful images and concepts in the reader's mind (which is where the word "imag-ination" comes from.) This transfer of images, concepts and ideas into the mind of a reader is the task of poetry and the calling of the poet. Just as a composer of music gathers rhythms, notes, melodies, or harmony, organizing them into fugues or sonatas or concertos, so poets work and write to discover ways of arranging their responses to the world in words that introduce meaning and beauty in the mind of the reader.

Which is what I've been trying to do for most of my life.

Luci Shaw is author of over forty books of poetry and creative non-fiction, and her writing has appeared in numerous literary and religious journals. In 2013 she received the Denise Levertov award for creative writing from Seattle Pacific University. Her most recent poetry collection, Reversing Entropy, was published in 2024 by Paraclete Press, publishers, also, of her forthcoming book, An Incremental Life. She may be contacted at lucishaw.com.

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