Reflections in a Rearview Mirror
Reflections in a Rearview Mirror
My path to this site began with doodling and drawing and then, in my late twenties, a need to speak in written words: short fiction and creative non-fiction, but not poetry because I thought no one read any. That changed.
My first book, A Ritual of Drowning: Poems of Love and Mourning, is a record of lesbian widowhood; the next, The Silent Poems, spans recovered memories of childhood and the vagaries of aging, with stops for motherhood, love, loss, and the politics of it all. My new book Reflections in a Rearview Mirror now joins works of prose and poetry, reflecting the themes which came before.
Cover design by Susan Liroff
Schaffer’s work can be tender, sensual, angry, or poignant. When she writes in a poem: “Now I say Love! Love! as one says salt…” the fierce taste of a full emotional life sits firmly on our tongues. We carry the sweetness and tang of her writing long after the book is closed. — Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories
These elegiac poems and stories are brave, poignant and profoundly honest. They mine memory, childhood, motherhood, love, loss, humor, and the sustenance of literature itself. This material shimmers with impacts.
I was deeply moved. — Chana Wilson, author of Riding Fury Home
The risks of love and the freedoms of courage, the precise and ongoing ache of a great loss, and the urgent necessity of love are revealed in a world where Little Women becomes a touchstone of rescue and comfort. — Sandra Butler, author of Leaving Home at 83
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About the Author
Teya Schaffer lives in Oakland, California where her poems and prose are accented by her New York Jewish roots. A dedicated procrastinator, she graduated high school in 1966, received a BA in 1989 and an MFA in 2003. Schaffer, now retired, has been an office temp, library worker, community college instructor and occasional teacher of poetry workshops as well.
Teya’s writing balances on an acceptance and rejection of life as it is. In addition to her books, A Ritual of Drowning: Poems of Love and Mourning and The Silent Poems, her work has appeared in anthologies including Coming Out of Cancer: Writings from the Lesbian Cancer Epidemic, Politics of the Heart: A Lesbian Parenting Anthology, The Tribe of Dina, and Women on Women, and in various journals for over fifty years.
Her third book is in your hand.
Words in Progress
Tree Ring Memories
Flyleaf
found penciled in used book on sale cart
James is coming back for this. Leave in living room.
Bits & Pieces of Words to Come
Judith Ortiz Cofer offers, The truth of poetry is like quantum physics. One should accept it even if one does not quite grasp it.
LeBron James offered, It’s all about angles and, for me, seeing things before they happen.