Savor Eternity One Moment at a Time


Book Description

Praise for "SAVOR ETERNITY" Alfred K. LaMotte is truly the rarest kind of alchemist. With each poem in this exquisite collection, he weaves ordinary words into pure gold, inducting the reader into a direct experience of the sublime ineffability of life itself. Sourced from the depths of his own awakened heart, his words will pierce straight through to your own tender heart, igniting and awakening you. LaMotte stands with Rilke, Rumi, and Hafiz in beckoning our souls to awaken. Let each poem be a mystery that you discover and savor as you would a lover. TINA M. BENSON, international bestselling author of " A Women Unto Herself: A Different Kind of Love Story" The poetry of Alfred K. LaMotte speaks to my soul of long lost love, and redeems my heart from a fall that I cannot even remember. Somehow he makes the total mystery of existence feel all right. Susanne Marie, meditation guide and founder of Transformation Through Presence TM Inside this poetry is the deep perfume of God, a vast pool of light and pure generosity. Here are bees, honey, and simplicity of Being. That is why every time we read his poetry, we are nourished, uplifted, and we never tire of reading them again and again. Guthema Roba, poet, author of "Please Come Home " and "Wake Up and Roar" Alfred K. LaMotte's writing simply and actively opens the heart, inspiring and enlightening without ever a heavy-handed word of preaching or lecture. In pure authenticity and elegant vulnerability, he writes with the clear heart of a true meditation teacher, and shows us the way Dian Lang, Author of "Opening to Meditation," Huffington Post columnist, and director of LifeWorks Center for Growth in Los Angeles TM. This is a stunning and prophetic book, courageous in its commitment to the living milk of the Mother, disturbing our complacency and our stagnant idealization of who She is or how She must appear. These poems joyously report that here, and right here, is where we taste the cardinal fulfillment of our essential nature. The Feminine, as a psychic force, reaches far beyond biological sex, and thus cannot be wholly claimed by the female voice (tempting as this might be after centuries of inequality and abuse). In his new book, Alfred K. LaMotte speaks from a breadth and wholeness that is the undeniable sign of Her presence. These poems help us see that the creaturely and the divine are not eternally set apart: they can be recognized as a single gesture of invitation to a much finer, more generous participation in the real. Britt Posmer, painter, performance artist and poet, author of "The Angel and the Heretic"




A New Republic of the Heart


Book Description

A vision to address our environment, economy, politics, culture, and to catalyze the radical whole-system change we need now Recasting current problems as emergent opportunities, Terry Patten offers creative responses, practices, and conscious conversations for tackling the profound inner and outer work we must do to build an integral future. In practical and personal terms, he discusses how we can all become active agents of a transformation of human civilization and why that is necessary to our continued survival. Patten's narrative focuses on two aspects of existence--our dynamic but fractured and threatened world, and our underlying wholeness and unity. Only by honoring both of these realities simultaneously can we make sustainable changes in ourselves, our communities, our body politic, and our planetary life-support system. A New Republic of the Heart provides a comprehensive understanding and inspiring vision for "being the change" in a way that can address the most intractable problems of our time. Patten shows how we can come together in our communities for conversations that matter and describes new communities, enterprises, and forms of dialogue that integrate both inner personal growth work with outer awareness, activism, and service.




The Fire of Darkness


Book Description

A unique collection of collages by Rashani Réa, accompanied by the poetry of Alfred K. LaMotte. Rarely has such a book as this been produced which radiates (you can almost feel it) the essence of the highest of spiritual ideals and ideas. Created this past summer--during eight of the twelve weeks when Kīlauea Volcano was erupting on the Big Island of Hawai`i--where Rashani has lived for the past twenty-seven years--Rashani's images speak to the idea of Darkness and yet how that same darkness can lead to rebirth, or "the Bardo" as she refers to it. Something to be embraced, "without fear and with trust"--as Rilke writes in a poem on the same subject. And in the end amidst the devastating flow of lava and the rain of ash, Rashani's collages, here, say to us that in the end the Darkness is all about Beauty.And beautiful this book is with the addition of complimentary poems by the poet Alfred K. LaMotte who lives on the U.S. mainland. With profound poems that are reminiscent of those of the Sufi poets Rumi, Hafiz and Kabir, the visual and mental collaborative "duet" that is blended between images and words creates a composite that is a kind of Creation Story. A "syzygy." A mated pair of opposites. Yin and yang. Adding a third dimension taking us out of the darkness of those noir nights of volcanic cataclysm and into the light. Allowing us, the readers, to see the beauty in the fire. And to come away cleansed and yet cautioned to the power and majesty of Nature and our home here on the planet Earth. -Thomas Rain Crowe, author of "Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved: 100 Poems of Hafiz" (Shambhala Publications, 2001)




Sixty Seconds


Book Description

Spiritual awakenings, whether quiet and subtle or dramatic and breathtaking, are deeply personal events. More than half of us have undergone a spiritual transformation, each unique and life-changing. We may only have a moment or two to act or we may have a few months to sort things out. We may curse the gods or sink to our knees in gratitude. Th e circumstances vary but two things are certain. One, our life is about to change. And two, it's a day we will not soon forget. Sixty Seconds is an uplifting collection of intimate, heartfelt stories from prominent people who graciously share their personal experiences with the profound. Their moving, life-altering interviews powerfully illustrate that sacred moments of illumination and insight are available to us all.




THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH


Book Description

THE NECTAR OF THIS BREATH - explores the liminal space between poetry and meditation. Many of the poems are prompts for contemplative practice, either by individuals or groups. They unite the mind with the heart, reaching even into our cell physiology to refresh the weary body with "the nectar of this breath." Without using esoteric or religious terminology, these poems probe the most subtle science of breathing, a spiritual practice handed down through wisdom traditions of both East and West. There are also longer poems, full of humor and rebellion, breaking into ecstatic incantation in the tradition of Walt Whitman and the Beats. The book gently reminds us that the same power who spins the galaxies and sings the stars comes to indwell us as our very breath, "and the dignity of this inhalation, how it softly places the spirit in each cell of your flesh, is your Lover's secret name."




The Wonder of Small Things


Book Description

The editor of the bestselling poetry anthologies How to Love the World and The Path to Kindness presents a collection of highly accessible, uplifting poetry celebrating the small wonders and peaceful moments of everyday life. James Crews, editor of two best-selling poetry anthologies, How to Love the World and The Path to Kindness, presents an all-new collection of highly accessible poems on the theme of celebrating moments of wonder and peace in everyday life. As Crews writes in the introduction: "[A] deep love for the world is present in every one of the poems gathered in this book. Wonder calls us back to the curiosity we are each born with, and it makes us want to move closer to what sparks our attention. Wonder opens our senses and helps us stay in touch with a humbling sense of our own human smallness in the face of unexpected beauty and the delicious mysteries of life on this planet." The anthology features a foreword by Nikita Gill and a carefully curated selection of poems from a diverse range of authors, including Native American poets Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, Kimberly Blaeser, and Joseph Bruchac, and BIPOC writers Ross Gay, Julia Alvarez, and Toi Derricotte. Crews features new poems from popular writers such as Natalie Goldberg, Mark Nepo, Ted Kooser, Naomi Shihab Nye, Jane Hirshfield, and Jacqueline Suskin, along with selections from emerging poets. Readers are guided in exploring the meaning and essence of the poems through a series of reflective pauses scattered through the pages and reading group questions in the back. This anthology offers the perfect intersection for the growing number of readers interested in mindful living and bringing poetry into their everyday lives.




Wounded Bud


Book Description

Wounded Bud - Poems for Meditation by Alfred K. LaMotte The poet Shelley wrote: "Every original language near to its source is the chaos of a cyclic poem... A poet participates in the eternal, the infinite, and the one." Ancient cultures recognized that the mystery of creation is the mystery of "original language." So John's Gospel declares, "In the beginning was the Word." And India's Mandukya Upanishad says, "All that ever was, is, or will be is created through the syllable Om." The poems in this volume reflect this ancient science of mantra. "Man" is the Sanskrit root of the English "mind" and "tra" of our suffix "tron," meaning vehicle. A mantra is a vehicle to carry the mind back to the source of creation, divine silence. Here in the heart, love awakens. Fred LaMotte conceives language in this ancient tradition, where poetry is a means of taking us home, taking us Om. Many of these poems also reflect the tradition of the mystical marriage. Poets of Eastern and Western religions understood the intimate play of soul and spirit as the whisperings of Lover and Beloved. They created a common poetic iconography, a love-language both sensuous and mystical, which we find in Sufi poets like Hafiz, Hindu poets like Mirabai, the Biblical Song of Songs, the Medieval troubadours, and the parables of Jesus. Mystical poetry can dis- solve religious conflict. Fred LaMotte offers us a revival of atavistic poetics: poetry as meditation, poetry as devotion, or Bhakti, poetry as love-song in the Bridal Chamber of the heart. "In the lover's heart is a lute which plays the melody of longing." Rumi




Edge of Eternity


Book Description

Ken Follett's extraordinary historical epic, the Century Trilogy, reaches its sweeping, passionate conclusion. In Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, Ken Follett followed the fortunes of five international families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—as they made their way through the twentieth century. Now they come to one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the 1960s through the 1980s, from civil rights, assassinations, mass political movements, and Vietnam to the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution—and rock and roll. East German teacher Rebecca Hoffmann discovers she’s been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for the rest of their lives. . . . George Jakes, the child of a mixed-race couple, bypasses a corporate law career to join Robert F. Kennedy's Justice Department and finds himself in the middle of not only the seminal events of the civil rights battle but a much more personal battle of his own. . . . Cameron Dewar, the grandson of a senator, jumps at the chance to do some official and unofficial espionage for a cause he believes in, only to discover that the world is a much more dangerous place than he'd imagined. . . . Dimka Dvorkin, a young aide to Nikita Khrushchev, becomes an agent both for good and for ill as the United States and the Soviet Union race to the brink of nuclear war, while his twin sister, Tanya, carves out a role that will take her from Moscow to Cuba to Prague to Warsaw—and into history.




That Said


Book Description

A collection of poetry spanning five decades chronicles the author's childhood as the daughter of dressmakers in Bergen, New Jersey, as well as the everyday experiences in her adult life. By the author of Music Minus One.




Eternal on the Water


Book Description

From the day Cobb and Mary meet kayaking on Maine's Allagash River and fall deeply in love, the two approach life with the same sense of adventure they use to conquer the river's treacherous rapids. But rivers do not let go so easily...and neither does their love. So when Mary's life takes the cruelest turn, she vows to face those rough waters on her own terms and asks Cobb to promise, when the time comes, to help her return to their beloved river for one final journey. Set against the rugged wilderness of Maine, the exotic islands of Indonesia, the sweeping panoramas of Yellowstone National Park, and the tranquil villages of rural New England, Eternal on the Wateris at once heartbreaking and uplifting -- a timeless, beautifully rendered story of true love's power.