Poetry Workshop: “The Lightness of Reprieve”

Wednesday, January 22, 2025 | 6:30 – 8:30 pm
Geneva Hall

“The Lightness of Reprieve”– poems about the power of love, commitment, and friendship in maintaining hope by Marilyn Hedgpeth. Join us on Wednesday, January 22 at 6:30 p.m. in Geneva Hall

What does it mean to provide hope, encouragement, solace and joy to a dear friend who is staying with you during a clinical trial for pancreatic cancer? In her debut poetry collection, The Lightness of Reprieve, Marilyn T. Hedgpeth looks for signs and omens as she works in her summer garden, runs errands in the car, and shares meals and laughter with her friends and family. These poems arose from that context, in a culture that tends to undervalue friendship as a force for strength and courage.

Marilyn and Hedge and their three children were members at White Memorial Presbyterian Church. from 1985-1992, when they moved to attend Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. After serving churches in West Virginia and in Durham, North Carolina, they retired from “active” ministry to Winston-Salem in 2020, just before the great COVID shut-down. They are still minister members of New Hope Presbytery.