Book Description

Just what is poetry, and who writes it, and why do they write it, and did they always write it or is it something that develops gradually, and how do they go about it, and what are some of the frustrations, and if the frustrations are great what even greater rewards are sufficient to keep spurring them on, and who are they writing for, and where do their ideas come from, and what influence do other poets and writers have on them, and, after repeated rejections from publishers, what keeps them from chucking it all in favor of less unpredictable not to mention more remunerative undertakings? The poems that follow, addressing in some manner all of these questions, are simply one individual's attempt to discern and then to follow what feels to him a calling or, using Joseph Campbell's word, his bliss. A "Dialogue with Events" section in Ira Progoff's Intensive Journal Program provided me a fruitful place back in the late 1970's to explore the significance in my life of becoming a psychotherapist. In Crafting Soul into Words I am in effect dialoguing with the evolving event in my life of becoming a poet. This collection will likely speak most to other writers, actual or aspiring, who will be able to identify with writing's steep and winding but exhilarating way. It may also appeal to those curious to know something of poetry's allure, as well as something of what makes this particular poet tick. Who knows, it may even have the felicitous effect of giving to one seldom lifting a pen an extravagant notion. Each experiences the universe uniquely, each has a singular story to tell-the joy is in finding the words!