Download or read book Demeter Goes Skydiving written by Susan McCaslin and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2011-03-01 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if Demeter, the timeless fertility goddess of ancient Greek myth, slipped through a crack into the twenty-first century, shook off her ankle bracelets, corn tassels, and garlands, and began a tour of our improbable culture? Award-winning poet Susan McCaslin exercises the profound mother-daughter trauma forged in the Demeter-Persephone myth with unapologetic modernity. This sequence takes on a novel life all its own: Hades steals away the maiden into a cult/culture of distorted body image, addiction, high anxiety, and rampant consumerism. Mother Demeter must negotiate this alien world of health clubs, paparazzi, and so-called reality shows locked in spiritual winter. McCaslin's lyrics are by turns profound, hilarious, and devastating as she journeys to the heart of a mother's love for her daughter. Here is poetry that seeks ties to the past inside the present, poetry that speaks to us all.
Download or read book Demeter Goes Skydiving written by Susan McCaslin and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2011-03 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning poet exercises the profound mother-daughter trauma forged in the Demeter-Persephone myth with unapologetic modernity.
Download or read book Little Wildheart written by Micheline Maylor and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2017-01-07 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: See with all clarity, and from way up, what the predator knows. Death already hunts. - from "We Are Entirely Flammable" Micheline Maylor's poems slip effortlessly through topics ranging from what we give up as we age to regrets for love that has passed, the interplay between the animal world and human thought, and the myths we append to ourselves and others. An expansive, conversational voice underscores the poet's technical mastery as her subjects turn from love to hope to fearlessness. Maylor asks readers to perceive how we inhabit our selves, how words construct us. By turns quirky, startling, earthy, and hope-filled, these poems reflect the moods of existence. Little Wildheart is rich with challenge and surprise.
Download or read book Believing is not the same as Being Saved written by Lisa Martin and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lisa Martin’s new poetry collection seeks the kind of lyric truth that lives in paradox, in the dwelling together of seeming opposites such as life and death, love and loss, faith and doubt, joy and sorrow. Here readers will find a range of moods, tones, and subjects, as well as both traditional and contemporary forms—from sonnets to prose poems. This is a collection imbued with the light of an enduring, if troubled, faith. With its focus on spirit, ethics, and how to live well, Believing is not the same as Being Saved offers a tender meditation on the moments that make a life. There’s a way of speaking as if the difference matters, as if the road home is finite—everything begins and ends somewhere, like your hand in mine, or how last light fractures in the limbs of pine—while beyond my window, a coyote follows a trail into the dusk that only it can see. — from "Map for the road home"
Download or read book Rain Shadow written by Nicholas Bradley and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2018-03-14 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rain Shadow is a collection of poetry that explores the fraught relationship between the natural world and humans yearning to connect with something greater than themselves. The poems range through destabilized lives and landscapes, fathoming presence and absence, transformation and oblivion. They outline the major questions of our time as the poet crisscrosses western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Witty, playful, serious, and heartsore, Rain Shadow seeks to understand the space in which people and nature are inextricably entwined. I walk like a bear— I have a bear’s gait— but the gate to the bear’s mind is closed. —from “The Bear and the Wind”
Download or read book Arousing the Spirit written by Susan McCaslin and published by Wood Lake Publishing Inc.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[This book] is not just for the religious or for Christians, but also for anyone who is alienated from religion but interested in spirituality… It is even for atheists who can’t accept a theistic God who manipulates things from outside on behalf of ‘his chosen ones’ or tribe of ‘true believers.’” – Susan McCaslin These writings by author-poet Susan McCaslin offer fresh and alternative ways of seeing and understanding our relationship with the Spirit. Christian-based, the 14 pieces that make up this collection (on topics such as perfectionism, paradise, the Beatitudes, Revelation, and presence) range beyond the compass of traditional Christianity to reveal universal wisdom and meaning. Written in beautifully nuanced language that articulates her clear thinking and captures her poet heart, the book reflects the central passions of McCaslin’s life: “mysticism (or the direct experience of the sacred) and its place in everyday life; peacemaking and justice;…the relation of spirituality and sexuality; and the significance of Jesus of Nazareth once divested of outworn theology and his sappy Hollywood persona.” McCaslin believes that actions speak louder than words or beliefs, and her pieces encourage us to explore ways to live life as a “mystical dance.” Each chapter is prefaced by one of McCaslin’s exquisite poems, leading the reader into a place of quiet contemplation from which to explore the writing.
Download or read book Acceptable Words written by Gary Schmidt and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2012-08-31 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acceptable Words offers prayers that correspond with each stage of the writer's work -- from finding inspiration to penning the first words to "offering it to God" at completion. Gary Schmidt and Elizabeth Stickney, experienced writers themselves, introduce each chapter of prayers with pithy pastoral reflections that will encourage writers in their craft. This welcome spiritual resource for writers includes both ancient and contemporary poems and prayers -- some of which were written especially for this volume. A thoughtful gift for any writer, Acceptable Words will accompany writers on their spiritual journey, lending words of praise and petition specifically crafted to suit their unique vocation.
Download or read book Between Midnight and Dawn written by Sarah Arthur and published by Paraclete Press. This book was released on 2016-01-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experience the liturgical seasons of Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide in the company of poets and novelists from across the centuries. This third literary guide compiled by Sarah Arthur completes the church calendar with daily and weekly readings for Lent and Easter from classic and contemporary literature. New voices such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Benjamín Alire Sáenz join well-loved classics by Dostoevsky, Rossetti, and Eliot. Light in the darkness, illuminating the soul. This rich anthology will draw you deeper into God's presence through the medium of the imagination. Praise for Sarah Arthur's literary guides: "A rich feast." — Lauren F. Winner, author of Still "I may just be a bit smitten with this book." — Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts "What a delight, to find so extraordinary a collection." — Kathleen Norris, author of Dakota and Cloister Walk "A thing of beauty!" — the late Phyllis Tickle, author of The Divine Hours "A creative re-envisioning of the traditional devotional." — IMAGE Journal "Once again, Sarah Arthur has provided rich and enriching resources for the recovery of a life of prayer. More difficult, perhaps, than any other truth we may glimpse in the midst of what we know as ‘the time being,' is the efficacy of penitential prayer; most elusive is the 'bright sorrow' that couples our repentance with joy. With this book, many will find their way to this inestimable blessing." — Scott Cairns, Author of Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems Other Literary Guides by Sarah Arthur: At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time, and Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany
Download or read book dear Hermes written by Michelle Smith and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2012-03-04 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By turns joyous and adventurous, melancholy and nostalgic, Michelle Smith's debut collection of poems showcases a wide-ranging fascination with places, people, and story. Smith's limpid and humane handling of an array of themes, emotions, and styles-her Norwegian ancestry, her Canadian Prairie heritage, the significance of family, the fragility of memory, world travel, ekphrasis, myth, and more-exemplifies the lyric self on a poetic grand tour, or pilgrimage, to meet the world. Framed by imaginative travelogues addressed to Greek gods, dear Hermes... offers readers an escape and an entrance-out of time and into the poet's luminous experience. Readers who appreciate clear lyric and fleet voicing will relish Smith's poetry.
Download or read book Hidden Lives written by Lenore Rowntree and published by Brindle and Glass. This book was released on 2012-09-04 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking collection, well-known and cutting-edge authors bring to light life with mental illness. These evocative essays, by writers who either suffer from or have close family members diagnosed with mental illness or a developmental disorder, aim to break down the stigma that surrounds one of the most devastating of human tribulations. The writers recount their experiences with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. What does it feel like to be psychotic? What sorts of thoughts go through your mind while you are killing yourself? How does a mother go on after her schizophrenic son throws himself into an unfinished construction site? The anthology drills to the core of compassion and disappointment—transcending hope and sometimes finding beauty in insanity. With a foreword by physician and bestselling author Gabor Maté, MD, Hidden Lives gives readers a place to turn and communicates not despair but courage.
Download or read book The Malahat Review written by and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Song of Wings written by Kris Faryn and published by Nimbus Brands Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-21 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I hunt dark creatures. He hunts Sirens like me. We used to be in love… The hunter has become the hunted. The Council of the Gods roped us in to fighting for them, ridding the human world of creatures that belong behind the veil. But now? They've asked too much. Kill my true love turned Siren Hunter. Nope. No can do. Not happening. Meanwhile, my Siren family is growing, I'm forced to work with someone who already betrayed me once, and the gods insist on using me and those I love as disposable chess pieces. It comes down to this. Decide who to trust. Who to save. And who to let die. The quest continues in this dark fantasy series described as "page-turning greatness." Fans of Holly Black and Tahereh Mafi will love Song of Wings, Book 2 of The Siren's Call series!
Download or read book Demeter and Persephone written by Justine Fontes and published by Graphic Universe. This book was released on 2008-02-01 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In graphic novel format, retells the Greek myth which offers an explanation for the Earth's seasons.
Download or read book A Matter of Spirit written by Susan McCaslin and published by Ekstasis Editions. This book was released on 1998 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The suggestion is here that soul-making is the true vocation of the poet. Poetry is personal speech on universal experience, and in this selection of poems the individual approach to the sacred is emphasized over any adherence to orthodoxy or doctrine. In this anthology, spiritual traditions of East and West are filtered through the personal vision of sixteen contemporary Canadian poets. These poets are joined together not by faith and similar belief, but in each following their own path to truth. Their poems and stories and editor Sussan McCaslin's insightful introduction illuminated fundamental themes of spiritual life that resonated in each of us.
Download or read book Light Housekeeping written by Susan McCaslin and published by Ekstasis Editions. This book was released on 1997 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At times deceptively simple, the poems in Light Housekeeping explore the tentative presence of the soul in everyday life through reflections on teaching, writing, familial bonds and raising a child.
Download or read book Gods and Goddesses in Love written by Agapi Stassinopoulos and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In ancient times, the Greeks created the gods and goddesses to represent the various personalities of human nature. In Gods and Goddesses in Love, Agapi Stassinopoulos tells the stories of the primary goddesses and gods, and how their myths can provide insight into your own romantic relationships. Included are two fun and fascinating quizzes: one for women to determine their own dominant personality type and which goddess she most embodies; and a second that will help every woman understand more about the "god" she is involved with, or searching for. In the book, the seven archetypal goddesses are portrayed in modern terms, highlighting not only each goddess's unique strengths but also the pitfalls or stumbling blocks she is likely to encounter in a relationship with her partner. Also included are interviews with real couples who reveal how they overcame obstacles to find true love. For anyone who desires the self-knowledge and empowerment to find their ideal other, Gods and Goddesses in Love is an uplifting, instructive, and enlightening guide for achieving greater fulfillment in love.
Download or read book Learning to Fly written by Steph Davis and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “It's not so surprising that on the day of my fifth wedding anniversary I would be crouched in the open door of an airplane, thirteen thousand feet above the Colorado plains, about to jump out. That coincidence of timing really wasn't.” Steph Davis is a superstar in the climbing community and has ascended some of the world's most awe-inspiring peaks. But when her husband makes a controversial climb in a national park, the media fallout—and the toll it takes on her marriage—suddenly leaves her without a partner, a career, a source of income . . . or a purpose. In the company of only her beloved dog, Fletch, Davis sets off on a search for a new identity and discovers skydiving. Though falling out of an airplane is completely antithetical to the climber's control she'd practiced for so long, she turns each daring jump into an opportunity to fly, first as a skydiver, then as a base jumper, and finds herself indelibly changed. As she opens herself to falling, she also finds the strength to open herself to love again, even in the wake of heartbreak. And before too long, she fortuitously meets someone who shares her passions. Learning to Fly is Davis's fascinating account of her transformation. From her early tentative skydives, to zipping into her first wingsuit, to surviving devastating accidents against the background of breathtaking cliffs, to soaring beyond her past limits, she discovers new hope and joy in letting go. Learning to Fly isn't just an adventure but a woman's story of risk-taking and self-discovery, with love at its heart.
