GODDESS OF SWIZZLE
Poems by Shirley J. Brewer
Please join The Ivy in welcoming Shirley Brewer for a celebration of Goddess of Swizzle on April 7th, 2026 at 6PM, her latest collection of poetry, published by Baltimore-based Apprentice House Press!
Poet, Mixologist, Goddess, Educator, Workshop Presenter, Accessorizer
Meet Shirley
I am Shimmering Goddess Energy
“My definition of shame is a bare wrist”
“CEO of Accessories”
“In Kindergarten, every day I carried to school a paper shopping bag filled with toys, in case the teacher ran out of things to do”
“I am more “sequin”tial than sequential”
Bursting with life and replete with colors, scents, flavors, and textures, the poems in Shirley J. Brewer’s Goddess of Swizzle personify joie de vivre. They explore every corner of human experience, from vivid childhood memories to sobering adult losses, but joy is never far off. Here is a poet whose mirth at watching her mother squeeze into a girdle is as irrepressible as her sorrow, sipping a Manhattan at her father’s grave. This collection is so refreshing, such an antidote to the world’s miseries. “Forget decorum,” Brewer advises—and she does. But beneath these poems’ often playful surfaces beats the heart of a poet who knows what it means to be alive.
—Sue Ellen Thompson, author of Sea Nettles: New & Selected Poems and winner of the Maryland Author Award
What the Bride Wore
A white silk jersey gown,
close-fitting bodice, bouffant skirt
of marquisette. Tulle halo in her hair.
After the honey dropped off the moon—
how Mom told it, winking at Dad—
she accepted synthetics, her closet
a department store paradise lush with
eye-popping shades of yellow and blue,
an occasional red. Mom worshipped
Alfred Dunner, adored his drip-dries.
She even whispered his name
into holy water before Sunday mass.
Silk’s fine for the wedding, she said, but you ought
to have plenty of polyester for the long haul.
Shirley J. Brewer
Poetry East
Wild Girls
After Words
A Little Breast Music
Bistro In Another Realm
