(New Jersey: Inka Publications, 1995)
ISBN  1-57502-110-2
Price: $8.50

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“Is it for this we have suffered . . .
That out of the pain speaks the Muse?”

Collected Experience is a compilation of verse written in various styles between 1975 and 1995.  In this “highly accessible” poetry, Wendy writes about current issues and universal themes.  The book contains her award-winning poem “Abortion”, and several poems that appeared in earlier publications: “The Seventies” (Dock Leave Press); “Goldfinch” (NJ Women Who Write); “Cats, Canines and Other Critters” (Anderie Poetry Press); “Realm of the Vampire” (Baker Street Press); “How Do I Love Thee” (Anderie Poetry Press); and “Tattoos by Women” (Outlaw Biker).

From the author:

        I am inspired to write about events that happen locally to people I know and this explains the origins of such poems as “Disabled,” “Abortion,” “Elisabeth Foster,” “Nova,” and “Monster.”

        Some poems are crafted in the confessional  tradition, and these include “Regrets,” “Empty,” “The First Time,”  “Failed Samaritan,” and “Beginners Class,”  while others are based on historical events or are triggered by literary tales.  Much of my verse addresses the natural world, as in “Cat,” “Iguana,” “Sunset,” and “The Cleansing.”

        The second section of Collected Experience  contains three extended sequences.  “Better be with the Dead” is subtitled “The Story of Marilyn Monroe” - “They Also Serve” is “A Poetic Record of the Gulf War” - and “The Tudor Wives” offers an account of “The Six Wives of Henry VIII.”

Excerpt from: Collected Experience: “They Also Serve”
January 14, 1991

We wait at home
and pine for news
Some do not care
Some do not feel
Taste of conflict
on all our lips
We cannot bend
We cannot kneel
The brave young men
we do not know
And cannot help
And cannot save
The hate and fear
is in our hearts
We must be strong
We must be brave
And death will come
with many heads
Upon the air
Upon the ground
The blood will run
into the sand
The burning flesh
The groaning sound
Politicians
make up the rules
They do not play
They do not die
Protect themselves
within thick walls
A million wait
A million cry
And on the dawn
the peace will burst
A wave of gas
A wave of death
And all must age
from this day on
The world will sigh
A changing breath