The Book Reviewers Site Synerge Books Category:  Poetry Publisher: SynergE ISBN-10:  1931540551 Type: Fiction Pages: 76 Copyright: Jan 1 2001 A beautiful collection of poetry and photographs that will take your breath away. From Jacquie: "This is a book about life through my eyes. My joys, my pain, my happiness, and my world. Being Indian, I see the world as different then yours; I taste it, I see it, I touch it, and I hopefully, hear it. The Creator has given me so much and I want to share the beauty of his world, and show you my path." Excerpt Clouds are the Creator's fingerprints, Rain, his tears, Thunder, his anger, Lightning, his wrath, Wind, his voice, Sunshine, his laughter, And rainbows, his love.

Clouds Are The Creator's Fingerprints by Danielle Naibert
Clouds Are The Creator's Fingerprints Author: Jacqueline Anastasia ISBN: 1-931540-55-1 E-book: 6.50 CD: 7.50 Jacqueline Anastasia, otherwise known as Claywoman, is a poet from the heart. Her poems can touch the darkest soul and warm it into it's private sunshine. Her heritage shows with passion with her verses, and I am truly delighted to have had the honor to read her poetry collection. Claywoman's poetry is a masterpiece of harmony, soul-related and peaceful memories. She caused tears to fall from my eyes when I happened upon a poem dedicated to "White Lace", a fellow writer friend of both of ours who left us awhile back. In fact, all of Claywoman's "death songs" were truly touching and I have memorized a few of them to sing quietly to myself in my head during hard times. I could never say what poem was the most remarkable in this collection. Her poems about love, lost and anquish feelings are filled with depth. Her poetry about nature and her creator are filled with passion, and there is one poem pertaining to a childhood tradegy that made me cringe for her and with her as I read it. From her Native American poems to her poems relating to life around her, this is a poetry collection that will live on in the reader's heart. Beautiful verses, true passion and heart warmth feelings I get all from this poet's creations.

CLOUDS ARE THE CREATOR’S FINGERPRINTS by Harlene Adams
Review: CLOUDS ARE THE CREATOR’S FINGERPRINTS by Harlene Adams In the growing genre of Native American literature we are fortunate to find an author who reaches beyond the indigenous experience to give voice to universal ecstasies and agonies with a uniquely rooted dialect. Jacqueline Anastasia, aka Claywoman, has accumulated years of insight from the conflicted perspective of a girl born Salish adopted early into a Caucasian family. Her gradual distancing from the brutal abuses of her youth and growing awareness of her biological heritage are the substance of this richly varied collection of her works. The assortment ranges thematically and artistically across a personal and cultural spectrum. She is particularly effective in her works around nature. She captures the awesome play of nature in terms of mundane human experience in Creator’s Fingerprints by describing the creation of cloud patterns as "unconscious finger doodling Like boys in a lazy stream". She captures peak moments of animal life from within the animal’s framework, as in Buffalo and Flight of the Eagle, where the senses of a buffalo cow giving birth, and the eaglet flying, become her own. She takes us through the Native American links to life cycles, renewal, and legacy through nature in She Lives Forever, Looking Down, and The Tree. Indulging the senses almost to a giddy overwhelm, her resonance with the natural world is evident in My Lake, Your Wedding Prayer, Impressions, and Sacred Mountains. Some of the poems carry an absorbing energy and activity in every line (Summer Heat, The Eagle). She is especially skilled at building the power of a piece to its moment of peak intensity: Buffalo and Fire in the Sky are notable examples. We are privileged to glimpse intimate, almost seductive instruction into Native American rituals with Pow-Wow and The Smudge. We feel the indignation of a people and an individual rooted in this land through her political overtones in My Lake. The ever-present link between Creator and native land and people prevails throughout, often as prayers of anguish, appreciation, and joy, as in Morning Spirit, My Lake, Creator’s Fingerprints, and Why? (which exposes pain in its rawest moments through the soul’s unsophisticated shrieks). The problem of angst over relationships plagues poets of all cultures. In works like Why Do I Stay? and those in the later section, Love, Anguish & Hope, we read much of the soul’s pain in terms of "agony" and "screaming". These early pieces echo complaints and desires of our common experience in more pedestrian language than in her more recent work. The maturity of this poet is much more in evidence when she lets metaphor and imagery carry the angst for her, as she does in Storm In My Soul. In pieces such as Who Am I? and the strong identity piece, Claywoman, Ms. Anastasia is on firmer ground. For her initial collection, Claywoman has offered up powerful evidence of a remarkably creative native soul who is giving us a privileged glimpse into her unique life journey. We are the more fortunate for her sharing. May 3, 2001