Remembering How to Praise: A Conversation with Writer Jen Lighty

Jen Lighty was born in Japan under a Waning Libra Moon, instilling her with a desire to share knowledge and create harmony wherever she goes.  Her life has been a journey of trial and error that has moved her to many places and professions from oyster farmer on Block Island, RI to aquatic bodyworker in Mexico. Writing has always been a constant thread. She currently lives in Kona, Hawai’i, where she is a passionate ocean swimmer, diving for inspiration for the essays on myth and story published on her Substack, The Corpus Callosum Chronicles.

Jen is Author of three books of poetry and the memoir, Piko: A Return to the Dreaming, she has been nominated for Best New American Poets. 

Piko recently reached #6 in folk tales, legends and mythology sales on Amazon. “It had me leaping across the road in broad daylight. It’s a wonderful feeling to have one’s childhood dream come true.” 

"In the Hawaiian language, Piko can be translated as "the very center." As a society, we understand that before we can make sense of the results of our culture, we must remember the very design of it, or its piko.Jennifer Lighty, with her provocative "Piko: A Return to Dreaming," coaxes its readers back into this center and, with masterful literation, weaves the patterns that bleed from this center to result in what we know as the human condition. Although the core concept is poetic, Lighty expresses this work in such a relatable way that anyone can position themselves as the lead character(s) whom, through the beauty of words, symbols, art, and consequence, truly affirm the core design which all results from." -Ke'oni Hanalei, founder Pōhala Hawaiian Botanicals.

"As a non-linear thinker who prefers the subtlety of metaphor, this can be an alarming question, but yesterday in my favorite shop on Block Island, The Glass Onion (itself a metaphor), I was able to articulate the main theme in a simple and direct way I found pleasing. So here it is: Piko is about humanity’s separation from nature and shows a way for humans to weave themselves back into the hoop of life.

My book Piko is a demonstration of the principle of administration and shows how, when life can be lived as a continual ceremony, a human being becomes one with all beings. This is my prayer. I have committed my life to this vision, and for those who know me personally, or even witnessed my journey from afar, you know that I have stayed true to the often gnarly and generally unrewarded by society process of unfolding whatever inside myself needs to be revealed in order to live a life of transparency and grace.

Piko: A Return To The Dreaming is an account of a 21-day ceremony enacted by a modern woman in search of mythic ground in an ancient Place of Refuge on Moku O Keawe, Hawaii' Island. Weaving together memoir, fairy tales and myths, Hawaiian history and culture, and reflections gleaned on the state of humanity's relationship to nature as the ceremony unfolds, the book explores the trauma of colonialism in Hawai'i through the author's personal experience, and the trauma enacted upon Earth by traumatized members of civilizations that have lost their connection to a mythic perspective that links the experience of being human to a wider matrix of meaning still held by some present day indigenous cultures. Incorporating fairy tales and myths from worldwide cultures, the book itself is a ceremony, an offering of healing to Earth, to the past, to the future, and a place of refuge for whoever needs it in the present moment as our unsustainable patriarchal systems collapse to create space for new ways of holistic being to evolve and emerge on Earth.

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Piko: A Return to the Dreaming can be purchased from all online retailers including Amazon and Bookshop.org. or can be ordered from local bookstores and on Whale Road Press website www.whaleroadpress.com