Poetry and About Poetry

Its Day Being Gone by Rose McLarney My rating: 4 of 5 stars In this collection, Rose McLarney interweaves the personal and the historical, the geography and the rain and mud, showing how all things are connected and the value and validity of the simple before the large. Her language and imagery are evocative, but not overly studied, colloguial without being prosy. Here she likens mistaking a doe for a predatory cougar to her thinking a young man who stops to offer her a lift is a rapist: The predator’s eyes go gentle as a doe’s because they are a doe’s. The man rides up, in shining rims and mirror tinted windows. And the sunset, which we love for its colored summary, gloriously reimagines the day As there is life in her writing, so there is a wistfulness for loss, that which is already past, and that which must soon go: As if those lives had wandered away from me and I was the one who would run for days on a scent-memory toward an end to which I thought I was bound. Spending sometime

Its Day Being Gone by Rose McLarney My rating: 4 of 5 stars In this collection, Rose McLarney interweaves the personal and the historical, the geography and the rain and mud, showing how all things are connected and the value and validity of the simple before the large. Her language and imagery are evocative, but not overly studied, colloguial without being prosy. Here she likens mistaking a doe for a predatory cougar to her thinking a young man who stops to offer her a lift is a rapist: The predator’s eyes go gentle as a doe’s because they are a doe’s. The man rides up, in shining rims and mirror tinted windows. And the sunset, which we love for its colored summary, gloriously reimagines the day As there is life in her writing, so there is a wistfulness for loss, that which is already past, and that which must soon go: As if those lives had wandered away from me and I was the one who would run for days on a scent-memory toward an end to which I thought I was bound. Spending sometim

My poem “Above Emile Creek” is included in the Fall 2014 edition of FLARE: The Flager Review, available here: http://issuu.com/bthompson73/docs/flare_fall_2014 on page 42. Don’t be confused by the misprint in the contents. My name has not changed to “David Dam.”

My poem "Above Emile Creek" is included in the Fall 2014 edition of FLARE: The Flager Review, available here: http://issuu.com/bthompson73/docs/flare_fall_2014 on page 42. Don't be confused by the misprint in the contents. My name has not changed to "David Dam."

Living Wages by Michael Chitwood My rating: 4 of 5 stars In "Living Wages," Michael Chitwood displays Robert Frost's love of manual labor and his simplicity of language and everyday imagery coupled with depth of thought and feeling. Something's being painted or patched. The rattle of the handy, portable rack of stairs is a sound like no other. The shudder of the extension, as one reach rides its twin up until it's twice as long as it began. Good work needs good assistance and what a clever commotion this is. There are no weak poems in this collection, no twaddle of seeking the "experimental" which too often means the inconsequential phrased as the incommunicable. Chitwood speaks cleanly and clearly and reaches the heart's muscle fiber. View all my reviews

Solstice The clear night drops snow from the clarity of stars, sighing in a gather under our footsteps. The brevity of cold light outside leads us indoors to the warmth greeting from a fireplace. There oak and maple hiss steam from snow crannied into bark. Summer sweet sap crackles. And we are witness to the logs becoming red glows, our faces the embers of quiet celebration.

Solstice The clear night drops snow from the clarity of stars, sighing in a gather under our footsteps. The brevity of cold light outside leads us indoors to the warmth greeting from a fireplace. There oak and maple hiss steam from snow crannied into bark. Summer sweet sap crackles. And we are witness to the logs becoming red glows, our faces the embers of quiet celebration.

My deepest gratitude to all who bought copies of my books during 2014. As promised, because there was a profit on Memories in Clay , Dreams or Wolves , a donation of $300 was made to the Germanna Community College Educational Foundation.

My deepest gratitude to all who bought copies of my books during 2014. As promised, because there was a profit on Memories in Clay , Dreams or Wolves , a donation of $300 was made to the Germanna Community College Educational Foundation.

What Love Comes To: New & Selected Poems by Ruth Stone My rating: 4 of 5 stars “My unknown, my own skeleton, you will take me where the cartilage loosens and the blood dries and I will let go my burning suns. On this fine collection of poems, Ruth Stone shows why she was one of the finest poets of the last century, and why she is too often under-rated today. Stone writes from life but not wallow in herself. She reconnects science with common life experience. And with a common word, she uncommonly phrases for us what we need to have said. View all my reviews

What Love Comes To: New & Selected Poems by Ruth Stone My rating: 4 of 5 stars "My unknown, my own skeleton, you will take me where the cartilage loosens and the blood dries and I will let go my burning suns. On this fine collection of poems, Ruth Stone shows why she was one of the finest poets of the last century, and why she is too often under-rated today. Stone writes from life but not wallow in herself. She reconnects science with common life experience. And with a common word, she uncommonly phrases for us what we need to have said. View all my reviews

The Book of Goodbyes by Jillian Weise My rating: 2 of 5 stars Weise obviously spent time and attention to her vision of what this book should be. It strives to be experimental, a common aesthetic standard today. After Dada, experimental is a hard direction to go and still have something to communicate. In sum, it may just be me, but this collection did not engage me, surprise me, or in any significant way cause me to reread. In fact, I skimmed many after the first few lines put me off. View all my reviews

The Book of Goodbyes by Jillian Weise My rating: 2 of 5 stars Weise obviously spent time and attention to her vision of what this book should be. It strives to be experimental, a common aesthetic standard today. After Dada, experimental is a hard direction to go and still have something to communicate. In sum, it may just be me, but this collection did not engage me, surprise me, or in any significant way cause me to reread. In fact, I skimmed many after the first few lines put me off. View all my reviews

Beautiful and Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry by David Orr My rating: 3 of 5 stars Orr’s guide is not really a guide to reading poems as such, although the chapter on Form does a bit of that. Rather, it is mostly a guide to the established Poetry Business and to how most writers who aspire to formal recognition play the game, willingly or not. If you love or like some poems, that us, if some speak to you in ways that matter, you may be interested in the oil and grease and gears and noise behind the machines that make published poetry. Or not. If you are wondering, in the words of the last chapter, “Why bother?” then I would not start here. There are several other books that offer you a way into reading poetry so that you might discover the ones that matter to you and are good art: A Poetry Handbook Paperback by Mary Oliver How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry Edward Hirsch And others. Orr offers this humble, and somewhat underwhelming reason: “I can only say that if yo

Beautiful and Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry by David Orr My rating: 3 of 5 stars Orr's guide is not really a guide to reading poems as such, although the chapter on Form does a bit of that. Rather, it is mostly a guide to the established Poetry Business and to how most writers who aspire to formal recognition play the game, willingly or not. If you love or like some poems, that us, if some speak to you in ways that matter, you may be interested in the oil and grease and gears and noise behind the machines that make published poetry. Or not. If you are wondering, in the words of the last chapter, "Why bother?" then I would not start here. There are several other books that offer you a way into reading poetry so that you might discover the ones that matter to you and are good art: A Poetry Handbook Paperback by Mary Oliver How to Read a Poem: And Fall in Love with Poetry Edward Hirsch And others. Orr offers this humble, and somewhat underwhelming reason: "I ca

I was deeply saddened to hear of the sudden and far too early passing of Claudia Emerson, past Poet Laureate of Virginia. Her poetry was accessible and real, compassionate and honest. “The is the season of her dying,” she wrote in “ Daybook ,” and you have kept it, I find, underneath the stairs in a box filed with photographs.” Emerson poetry will be the photographs we read to remember her: Artifact Early Elegy: Headmistress She wrote so much about death—but it was always life she celebrated. And so we must celebrate Claudia Emerson’s life at her passing.

I was deeply saddened to hear of the sudden and far too early passing of Claudia Emerson, past Poet Laureate of Virginia. Her poetry was accessible and real, compassionate and honest. "The is the season of her dying," she wrote in " Daybook ," and you have kept it, I find, underneath the stairs in a box filed with photographs." Emerson poetry will be the photographs we read to remember her: Artifact Early Elegy: Headmistress She wrote so much about death---but it was always life she celebrated. And so we must celebrate Claudia Emerson's life at her passing.

Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Leavell’s account of the life and work of Marianne Moore raised some objections that it was unfair to Moore’s mother. The Moore family dynamics were certainly off. But Leavell adds to the case that Moore was one of our most significant American poets. Moore wrote without regard to labels. She was a Modernist who used a precise syllabic form and rhymes. She was a defender of the underdog, an early white champion of civil rights and of black artists and athletes who also voted Republican and defended LBJ’s continuing the Vietnam War, the latter mainly so as not to abandon the South Vietnamese. She wrote “advertising” verse and patriotic poems during WWII. She was raised by lesbians and then denigrated by second wave feminists. Her poetry must be read and dealt with if you care about American poetry. Her carefully controlled poems were often described as emotionless and overly intellectua

Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore by Linda Leavell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Leavell's account of the life and work of Marianne Moore raised some objections that it was unfair to Moore's mother. The Moore family dynamics were certainly off. But Leavell adds to the case that Moore was one of our most significant American poets. Moore wrote without regard to labels. She was a Modernist who used a precise syllabic form and rhymes. She was a defender of the underdog, an early white champion of civil rights and of black artists and athletes who also voted Republican and defended LBJ's continuing the Vietnam War, the latter mainly so as not to abandon the South Vietnamese. She wrote "advertising" verse and patriotic poems during WWII. She was raised by lesbians and then denigrated by second wave feminists. Her poetry must be read and dealt with if you care about American poetry. Her carefully controlled poems were often described as emotionles

My thanks to all who wrote reviews of “ Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves ” on Amazon. I excerpt some comments that are deeply gratifying for a poet to read: “the powerful closing poem I am of Appalachians” –  Patrick Bradley “ Tactile experiences join ruminations: You feel the environment in these poems, or see rivers, creatures and sky with new eyes….  There is wonderful sense of place (or places) in these poems and language.” –  Douglas Glenn Clark   “ Like a multi-textured cloth that you need to touch to understand, appreciate and enjoy. His stories remind me of my childhood, and for that I am greatful for his ability to bring his words to life.” – John Brining “ I could picture myself there as I read it.” – Janet Lyons “ These poems awaken the senses and are wonderful to read aloud.” – Alice Crane “ This honest and powerful book provides a compelling window into the development of the heart and mind of a man…” Mike Zitz “ The poems in this volume cover a variety of topics, but al

My thanks to all who wrote reviews of " Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves " on Amazon. I excerpt some comments that are deeply gratifying for a poet to read: "the powerful closing poem I am of Appalachians" -  Patrick Bradley " Tactile experiences join ruminations: You feel the environment in these poems, or see rivers, creatures and sky with new eyes....  There is wonderful sense of place (or places) in these poems and language." -  Douglas Glenn Clark   " Like a multi-textured cloth that you need to touch to understand, appreciate and enjoy. His stories remind me of my childhood, and for that I am greatful for his ability to bring his words to life." - John Brining " I could picture myself there as I read it." - Janet Lyons " These poems awaken the senses and are wonderful to read aloud." - Alice Crane " This honest and powerful book provides a compelling window into the development of the heart and mind

Into Daylight: Poems by Jeffrey Harrison My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a pleasure to read Jeffrey Harrison’s plain but pur language. He strikes the right notes without pretension, but certainly with craft. There are tones of regret, mourning, whimsy, celebration, lust, humor, nostalgia, hope. Two examples of many possible: “…she’s collecting leaves: the yellow mittens of the sassafras, the burgundy oaks, the lemony ovals of the beeches baking to brown, and the maples’ red flamelets scattered on the path, their backs a pale violet.” (from “Walking with Eliza”) If a poet’s job is to pay attention, really pay attention, and then find the right words, this shows Harrison doing that job well. Here he recalls in his son’s drinking directly from a faucet the image of his brother who had committed suicide 10 years before: “…and I like the way my son becomes a little more my brother for a moment through this small habit born of a simple need…” I must admit a guilty pleasure in reading from “On

Into Daylight: Poems by Jeffrey Harrison My rating: 4 of 5 stars What a pleasure to read Jeffrey Harrison's plain but pur language. He strikes the right notes without pretension, but certainly with craft. There are tones of regret, mourning, whimsy, celebration, lust, humor, nostalgia, hope. Two examples of many possible: "...she's collecting leaves: the yellow mittens of the sassafras, the burgundy oaks, the lemony ovals of the beeches baking to brown, and the maples' red flamelets scattered on the path, their backs a pale violet." (from "Walking with Eliza") If a poet's job is to pay attention, really pay attention, and then find the right words, this shows Harrison doing that job well. Here he recalls in his son's drinking directly from a faucet the image of his brother who had committed suicide 10 years before: "...and I like the way my son becomes a little more my brother for a moment through this small habit born of a simple need...

Thank you  Rotary Club of Rappahannock-Fredericksburg for allowing me to visit the day before Thanksgiving and talk about my book, “ Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves .” Thank you for your ongoing support for Germanna Community College and to those members who purchased copies. I will now be able to write a larger check to our Educational Foundation in December.

Thank you  Rotary Club of Rappahannock-Fredericksburg for allowing me to visit the day before Thanksgiving and talk about my book, " Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves ." Thank you for your ongoing support for Germanna Community College and to those members who purchased copies. I will now be able to write a larger check to our Educational Foundation in December.

Sea Garden by H.D. My rating: 3 of 5 stars In this early and slim volume, you can see what will come in HD’s later imagist writing. Here too often the diction of “high poetry” of the 19th Century appears. And too many poems are apostrophes to flowers and objects. But the irregular verse is free, the imagery true, and the language moving towards the modern. View all my reviews

Sea Garden by H.D. My rating: 3 of 5 stars In this early and slim volume, you can see what will come in HD's later imagist writing. Here too often the diction of "high poetry" of the 19th Century appears. And too many poems are apostrophes to flowers and objects. But the irregular verse is free, the imagery true, and the language moving towards the modern. View all my reviews

Incarnadine: Poems by Mary Szybist My rating: 4 of 5 stars Mary Szybist’s second collection reaches for heaven through an imagining of the experience of Mary at Annunciation, and sometimes touches it with such lovely and simple language as: “Time to enter yourself. Time to make your own sorrow. Time to unbrighten and discard even your slenderness.” “…having bathed carefully in the syllables of your name,” “Now what seas, what meanings can I place in you?” There are times when the simplicity becomes merely prosaic and the collection is a bit uneven. Still and all, a worthy effort. View all my reviews

Incarnadine: Poems by Mary Szybist My rating: 4 of 5 stars Mary Szybist's second collection reaches for heaven through an imagining of the experience of Mary at Annunciation, and sometimes touches it with such lovely and simple language as: "Time to enter yourself. Time to make your own sorrow. Time to unbrighten and discard even your slenderness." "...having bathed carefully in the syllables of your name," "Now what seas, what meanings can I place in you?" There are times when the simplicity becomes merely prosaic and the collection is a bit uneven. Still and all, a worthy effort. View all my reviews

Saint Friend by Carl Adamshick My rating: 5 of 5 stars This small collection is one of the finest I have read from a contemporary poet. Carl Adamshick writes with simple but supple grace and gives voices to others including Amelia Earhart. The poem “Layover” disguises craft under an illusion of stream of consciousness. But if you reread, it is hard to imagine a different order to the words. Poems abound in wonderful lines, a few of which I quote a here: “…the moon laying its light on men abandoned to their immediate selves” *** “It is the solace of a shadow lost on black water.” *** “Growing up I talked to the road near my house when it was barren and straight miles were buried under an eternity of moonlight.” *** “It’s what we don’t have words for that grows lonely within us.” We are all less lonely because Adamshick has given us some of the words with simple and profound eloquence. View all my reviews

Saint Friend by Carl Adamshick My rating: 5 of 5 stars This small collection is one of the finest I have read from a contemporary poet. Carl Adamshick writes with simple but supple grace and gives voices to others including Amelia Earhart. The poem "Layover" disguises craft under an illusion of stream of consciousness. But if you reread, it is hard to imagine a different order to the words. Poems abound in wonderful lines, a few of which I quote a here: "...the moon laying its light on men abandoned to their immediate selves" *** "It is the solace of a shadow lost on black water." *** "Growing up I talked to the road near my house when it was barren and straight miles were buried under an eternity of moonlight." *** "It's what we don't have words for that grows lonely within us." We are all less lonely because Adamshick has given us some of the words with simple and profound eloquence. View all my reviews

The opening poem in my collection “ Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves ,” has its roots with William Wordsworth Spots in Time section of the Prelude: From The Prelude Book Twelfth William Wordsworth There are in our existence spots of time, That with distinct pre-eminence retain A renovating virtue, whence–depressed                             By false opinion and contentious thought, Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight, In trivial occupations, and the round Of ordinary intercourse–our minds Are nourished and invisibly repaired; A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced, That penetrates, enables us to mount, When high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen. This efficacious spirit chiefly lurks Among those passages of life that give                              Profoundest knowledge to what point, and how, The mind is lord and master–outward sense The obedient servant of her will. Such moments Are scattered everywhere, taking their date From our first childhood. I remember well, T

The opening poem in my collection " Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolves ," has its roots with William Wordsworth Spots in Time section of the Prelude: From The Prelude Book Twelfth William Wordsworth There are in our existence spots of time, That with distinct pre-eminence retain A renovating virtue, whence--depressed                             By false opinion and contentious thought, Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight, In trivial occupations, and the round Of ordinary intercourse--our minds Are nourished and invisibly repaired; A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced, That penetrates, enables us to mount, When high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen. This efficacious spirit chiefly lurks Among those passages of life that give                              Profoundest knowledge to what point, and how, The mind is lord and master--outward sense The obedient servant of her will. Such moments Are scattered everywhere

Please join me for a reading from my books Saturday November 15, 2014 from 2 to 4 pm. I will also be available to sign copies for those who have purchased them. Thank you, Griffin! Location: The Griffin The Griffin Bookshop and Coffee Bar 723 Caroline St Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 http://www.griffinbookshop.com / https://www.facebook.com/GriffinBookshop/info I will read from Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolve s & Dark land, White Light . Here is a poem from Memories: Dust of the Mundane Clouds dressed and undressed the sky all day, shadows straying across fields and dirt roads. I walked against the traffic of the clouds, their streaming east down the dry highway, echoed by shadows and by dust-arousing cars. I walked their windblown dust. Soon my feet itched where they met the shoes because, sockless, I had come to wear brown leggings of sweat-streaked dust. As the clouds have abandoned all hope of making their endless goal before the night dissolves them into white stars, so I h

Please join me for a reading from my books Saturday November 15, 2014 from 2 to 4 pm. I will also be available to sign copies for those who have purchased them. Thank you, Griffin! Location: The Griffin The Griffin Bookshop and Coffee Bar 723 Caroline St Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401 http://www.griffinbookshop.com / https://www.facebook.com/GriffinBookshop/info I will read from Memories in Clay, Dreams of Wolve s & Dark land, White Light . Here is a poem from Memories: Dust of the Mundane Clouds dressed and undressed the sky all day, shadows straying across fields and dirt roads. I walked against the traffic of the clouds, their streaming east down the dry highway, echoed by shadows and by dust-arousing cars. I walked their windblown dust. Soon my feet itched where they met the shoes because, sockless, I had come to wear brown leggings of sweat-streaked dust. As the clouds have abandoned all hope of making their endless goal befo

When I was first beginning to seriously contemplate a life of  poetry writing and living in Ann Arbor, I hear Galway Kinnell read at en event held by the University of Michigan. I went down the street to the Centicore Bookstore (also RIP) and bought what they had available. How he influenced me is hard for me to describe. Style, yes a bit. Subject, yes his revelations of the holy in flesh and life and what some would call profane. I mourn his passing on and celebrate that he left so much behind in his poetry. Here you can read some of his verse: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/kinnell/online.htm More poems and some audios of him reading are here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/galway-kinnell#about

When I was first beginning to seriously contemplate a life of  poetry writing and living in Ann Arbor, I hear Galway Kinnell read at en event held by the University of Michigan. I went down the street to the Centicore Bookstore (also RIP) and bought what they had available. How he influenced me is hard for me to describe. Style, yes a bit. Subject, yes his revelations of the holy in flesh and life and what some would call profane. I mourn his passing on and celebrate that he left so much behind in his poetry. Here you can read some of his verse: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/g_l/kinnell/online.htm More poems and some audios of him reading are here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/galway-kinnell#about

My poem “Eden” is included in a free Kindle of the journal Literature Today. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P4HIW0 4

My poem "Eden" is included in a free Kindle of the journal Literature Today. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P4HIW0 4

Photo from the Local Authors book fair at the Culpeper Library on November 1, 2014

Photo from the Local Authors book fair at the Culpeper Library on November 1, 2014

Appalachia: Poems by Charles Wright My rating: 4 of 5 stars Charles Wright is a spiritual poet who questions everything including his questions. He is a poet of nature who suspects that nature has a trick up her sleeve. Landscape and language interplay and he asks much of both, received much, but never enough. In this collection, he reads from an imagined “Appalachian Book of the Dead” and takes us deep into wonder, and fear, and hope, and resignation, “Until there is nothing else” but silence. View all my reviews

Appalachia: Poems by Charles Wright My rating: 4 of 5 stars Charles Wright is a spiritual poet who questions everything including his questions. He is a poet of nature who suspects that nature has a trick up her sleeve. Landscape and language interplay and he asks much of both, received much, but never enough. In this collection, he reads from an imagined "Appalachian Book of the Dead" and takes us deep into wonder, and fear, and hope, and resignation, "Until there is nothing else" but silence. View all my reviews

Join me and other local authors at the Culpeper Library Saturday Nov 1 at 2pm.

Join me and other local authors at the Culpeper Library Saturday Nov 1 at 2pm.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth My rating: 4 of 5 stars A fit ending to this dystopian trilogy, written by Millennial author Veronica Roth. Supposedly aimed at a young adult audience, the Divergent novels may be read and appreciated by any reader. Along with the Hunger Games trilogy, which was written by a late Baby Boomer, these novels suggest implications for how some young people may view the way they are used and manipulated by older generations currently in power. In both cases, youths are forced to choose among several warped and limiting options. And in both cases, the larger society uses them as fodder in socially dysfunctional entertainments or oppressive functions. It may be too much to suggest parallels with the education traps we have created, the false hopes for careers and lives of meaning betrayed by decisions made by the elites and by history. On the other hand, it may not be a false analogy at all. View all my reviews

Allegiant by Veronica Roth My rating: 4 of 5 stars A fit ending to this dystopian trilogy, written by Millennial author Veronica Roth. Supposedly aimed at a young adult audience, the Divergent novels may be read and appreciated by any reader. Along with the Hunger Games trilogy, which was written by a late Baby Boomer, these novels suggest implications for how some young people may view the way they are used and manipulated by older generations currently in power. In both cases, youths are forced to choose among several warped and limiting options. And in both cases, the larger society uses them as fodder in socially dysfunctional entertainments or oppressive functions. It may be too much to suggest parallels with the education traps we have created, the false hopes for careers and lives of meaning betrayed by decisions made by the elites and by history. On the other hand, it may not be a false analogy at all. View all my reviews

My poem “Flowing Into The Adjacent Possible” has been accepted for publication in the winter issue of the Scapegoat Review.

My poem "Flowing Into The Adjacent Possible" has been accepted for publication in the winter issue of the Scapegoat Review.

Post by Germanna Community College .

Post by Germanna Community College .

Post by Germanna Community College .

Post by Germanna Community College .

Post by Germanna Community College .

Post by Germanna Community College .

My reading to Germanna students is available streamed here: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/7082119/events/3495279

My reading to Germanna students is available streamed here: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/7082119/events/3495279

When I was in high school and college, as is common for all of us at that time in our lives, I struggled to decide who I was to become. Would I be a scientist. I loved geology, astronomy, astrophysics, meteorology, paleontology, and so on. I did well in math and science. But I also loved literature and language. And I had been writing since I was 11 years old. Five books helped me see that there did not have to be a divide in me: Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse Narcissus the left brained monk, Goldmund the right brained artist and vagabond, were really two halves of one mind. Love and Will by Rollo May This work taught me that love was an action of will, to oversimplify, and that a life is richer by action and contemplation being interwoven. The Tao of Physics  by Frijof Capra still causes some controversy for scientists who think mysticism is pure bunk and mystics who see science as antithetical to a spiritual life. Capra suggests a way that brings both together, as does: Th