Living Poems, Writing Lives: Spirit, Self, And The Art Of Poetry

Living Poems, Writing Lives engages a poet's vision, heart and craft in embrace of the art of conscious living. The integration of literary, psychological and spiritual perspectives takes the reader on an invaluable journey of self-discovery. Each chapter offers a gentle review of a basic poetic device, using model poems that range from Shakespeare to Slam, and then turns that device inward, as a tool for living consciously. How do imagery, metaphor, diction, rhythm, conflict, and texture, among others, influence our daily lives? Living Poems, Writing Lives offers us answers. Chapter-ending exercises and meditations, a 15-billion-year time line, and an extensive annotated bibliography complement the author's unique understanding of poetic devices and imagination in promoting a culture of integral consciousness that begins with and nurtures an ongoing inquiry into the self. The book emerged and evolved from a workshop at the Hudson Valley Writers Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY in 1998.