Marge Piercy

Colors Passing Through Us by Marge Piercy (2003).  Piercy draws on a number of different influences in this book:  the life of her maternal grandmother, who emigrated from a Lithuanian stetl; her love of gardening; her strong sense of political activism; her experiences with marriage and divorce; and her own sexuality.
Piercy, who has lived on Cape Cod for decades, was born and raised in Detroit during the Great Depression, and was the first member of her family to attend college.  She rebelled against the traditional roles of the 1950's, however, becoming involved with both the civil rights movement and the feminist movement. She published her first book of poems - Breaking Camp - in 1968, after completing an M.A. at Northwestern University.  She has since published 16 collections of poetry, the most recent being The Crooked Inheritance.  Many of her prose and poetical works deal with feminism, Judaism, cats and gardening.