Journals Books

This book changed my whole perspective on dating, marriage andlife as a single person. It helped me finally become secure in beingsingle, even if for life. God definitely used this book to shape who I am today. The writing style is great and you'll find you can't put the book down. The books before this one compliment it and I would suggest reading the first 6 books in the series before it. It will be well worth your time!

After a tragedy in the novel before this seventh book in the series, Corrie finds herself awakened with more questions without answers than she can figure out by herself. She must rely on her faith in God to help sort through the questions to her life. Is she to stay at the convent, is she to continue writing to help those she believes are right? She overcomes some heartaches and misunderstandings by visiting the home of her youth in New York, emerging on the other side with California beckoning to her and a certain someone on her mind. God reveals to her what is to become of her life! Though not as exciting as some of the latter novels, this book certainly keeps me reading! Very good!

I am moved by every book in the "Journals of Corrie Belle Hollister" series, but Land of the Brave and the Free has influenced me most. Displaying God's faithfulness to one life through a sequence of dramatic and suspenseful events, this book accurately describes the struggles and questions that a young person has about life. The reader's interest is stirred by the Civil War setting and by Corrie's placement in major events in U.S. history, such as the Civil War's final battle and the funeral procession of President Lincoln. My favorite aspect of this book is Corrie's growing relationship with God and, in these portions, I learned a lot about myself. God's goodness and beautiful gifts bring the book to a close with an ending that brings tears. Overall, Land of the Brave and the Free is one of the best installments in "Journals of Corrie Belle Hollister" series and a must-read for every Christian fiction enthusiast.

Great job papi, and a great read!
love, your daughter,
Julia

John Nichols is always a joy to read. He is the John Stenbeck of our time. No one combines art and social views so beautifully as he does.

My grandmother gave this beautiful book to me for Christmas the year it was published. (I believe it was 1980 or 1981). I feel madly in love and am still madly in love today. I re-read this book every year in October, it has become a most beloved ritual. I took a chance in early 1992 and wrote to John Nichols and was I ever surprised! He wrote me back. I have two copies and now that they have a new edition, I plan on buying it too! I have a hard back signed copy that I treasure and I know it is authentic because the signature is exactly the way he signed his letter to me. Read this book and plan to be thoroughly enchanted. I was and still am after almost 20 years.

This is a delightful book! I live in the city, where it's easy to overlook the abundance of nature all around. The book helped me to appreciate what was there. Especially when I'm stressed out, this approach to nature journaling helps me unwind and relax in my own backyard absolutely free of charge!

Leaf Bird Days & Firefly Nights: Personal Renewal Through Nature Journaling by veteran nature writer Beverly Letchworth is an elegant, eloquent example of the spiritual tranquility and uplifting beauty that can be experienced through keeping a nature journal. The author's own words describing birds and animals evoke a gentle warmth and faith in the natural world. Appendixes offer ways to entice birds and creatures to visit one's backyard. Leaf Bird Days & Firefly Nights is a welcome, rewarding, and inspiring addition to any environmental activist, nature lover, or bird fancier's personal reading list.

In this book, author Beverly J. Letchworth takes you on a journaling trip through nature. Sharing with you helpful tips and things to observe, she keeps each page brimming with pelasure.

As in the March 8th entry, Leaf Bird. She brings to life the excitement of seeing a bird she thinks is a hawk. She spots the bird in a tree while doing other chores, and quickly reaches for her binoculars to verify the identification. She scrutinizes the tree limbs, then spots the object of her excitement. There it is. Quiet, still. A big clump of leaves!

And so it goes. The seasons change and grow. Winter tiptoes to spring, and summer twirls into a new winter. You journey with nature's surprises, joys and misfortunes. You learn ways to make your own nature journal, or add to the one you all ready keep.

Creating a haven for creatures, in you own backyard, is described with simple easy ideas and valuable information. Finding comfort and a way to relax after a hectic day is easier when you embrace nature. Leaf Bird Days & Firefly Nights will show you how.

A timeless volume of America's finest editorialist's collected prose. I cherish my autographed copy (won through a WWN contest).

Ed pulls no punches. And I mean none. Overcrowded prisons? Ed's solution is electrified bleachers. Namby pamby pantywaist liberals from Washington telling you what to do? Ed's solution involves chains and shotguns. Whiners and crybabies over the current injury dejour? Ed heads up the "ironic punishment" department for both Heaven and Hell.

Railroad gothic hot type editorial prose. Ed is no Ring Lardner, nor Ambrose Bierce, but his direct style and strained homespun metaphors will warm the cockles of your heart long after you put this down.

This is another boonie dog book review by Wolfie and Kansas. We are chicken-biting happy about "Let's Pave the Stupid Rainforests & Give School Teachers Stun Guns", a collection of essays by Ed Anger. Anger is a columnist for the Weekly World News, a newpaper that is a favorite of puppies everywhere.

Anger addresses many issues of importance to canines. On the issue of dog intelligence, he wisely concludes, "The more tricks a dog will do, the stupider he is." Under this theory, we boonie dogs are geniuses! Anger also recommends that Socks Clinton be defanged and declawed. In a courageous editiorial, Anger suggest testing veterinary medicines on humans rather than testing human medicines on dogs.

Occasiionally Anger misfires, as when he asserts that a certain noncanine actress of primate derivation has an IQ slightly higher than a dog. Perhaps such lapses are only satirical. On the whole Anger is one of the most canine-sensitive columnists writing today.

Ed shoots in all directions, at everyone, at once. Not to be confused with humorless lightweights like Rush Lumbago, Ed Anger's commentary is the funniest stuff I have read in years. Read the book closely enough and you are sure to find yourself mocked and castigated by Mr. Anger. Therefore, the book is NOT recommended for those lacking in the ability to laugh at oneself. I particularly recommend his proposal for a special Women's Driver's License (though I hardly agree with him)

"Only you can discover exactly why it is that you write. I write to leave evidence that I was here, and to make my life journey as fully conscious as I can." ~Christina Baldwin

Christina Baldwin's beautiful voice leads the listener into a writing journey. She tells stories of her own experience with writing a diary and then explores a variety of exciting possibilities. If you are interested in writing a journal, creating a scrapbook or even writing the story of your life, then this is an excellent starting point. Christina Baldwin uncovers the true reasons we write, why we must write and why we love to write. She introduces "Flow Writing," "Collage Journals," and "Day Books." The main topics include:

Why Do We Write?
A Brief History of Writing
The Types of Writing - online, computer, pen and paper
Writing a Lifeline
Writing our way out of Despair
Writing a Love Letter
Creating Goals
Conversations with your Soul
Creating a Writing Sanctuary
Making Time for Writing
Writing about Relationships
How to Create Journals for Gifts
Bringing Art into the Writing Process
Starting a Writing Group

You may find yourself listening to each CD more than once before moving onto the next CD. The topics are inspiring and there are so many ideas for making writing part of your life.

If you especially enjoy any part of the CDs, there is a way to quickly find the area on the CD by marking it on the sheet of topics. There is also a card set with topics from each CD. On card eleven:

"Consider making special books that hold the best of what you have to say, and giving them as gifts to loved ones."

Christina Baldwin is right when she says that writing organizes life. You may also enjoy her book: One to One: Self-Understanding through Journal Writing. She is an author, educator, speaker and retreat leader who specializes in the process of personal writing. Her teaching style is more than inspiring.

~The Rebecca Review

I'm an avid journaler and aspiring writer, and have become fairly jaded by the seemingly nonstop stream of how-to-be-a-better-writer books and tapes available. But listening to Lifelines has changed everything for me. Though the series focuses on personal writing for insight and healing, the natural clarity with which Christina illustrates the importance of The Story -- and the excellent exercises that are included in the set -- have made it possible to both capture and learn from my own life's stories AND become a better and more courageous writer all around. I set aside a portion of my morning every day for listening to Lifelines and writing. What a wonderful, wonderful thing she has created here.

For many thousands of years, people have been leaving their marks to tell a story. In the caves of Lascaux, pictographs became the first journal entries. "Story is really all we have of ourselves," says Christina Baldwin, the visionary who started (or perhaps we should say restarted) the personal writing movement. Baldwin's own writing story is one that began when she picked out words she knew from the newspaper, something I remember doing myself. Later, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, she buried a metal box of precious objects "to save [her] story," including her own journal and The Diary of Anne Frank.

Recording Lifelines was an opportunity for Baldwin to define and develop her philosophy of writing and life story, which became a gift of inspiration and affirmation for listeners. If you are about to begin a writing practice, you will receive guidance from a wise teacher. If you are already writing, and even if you have been doing so for a long time, you will be reminded of how important a lifeline writing is. The wonder of a recording is it's as if the speaker is talking directly to you. Another benefit to listening to a CD is being able to hear a writing mentor's voice even while driving in the car. I remember particular stories from Lifelines with a memory of the place where I heard them.

When Baldwin published One to One: Self-Understanding through Journal Writing in 1977, the Library of Congress had to create a new category for her pioneering work. It was followed by Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Quest, which the author wrote because she wanted to find her "tribe." You will find a review of the latter book on this site, and on www.storycirclebookreviews.org. Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture describes the way of council where story is part of the decision-making. "The circle calls us to remember ourselves as carriers of the story," Baldwin says. This is the methodology she and partner Ann Linnea have shared around the world through their business, PeerSpirit, Inc. Baldwin's fourth book published in 2002, The Seven Whispers: A Spiritual Practice for Times Like These, invites people into exploring their relationship to the Divine. Her most recent book is Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story. See my review elsewhere on this site, and on www.storycirclebookreviews.org

As I describe Baldwin's books, all of which I've read, I recall my story of writing on my own and writing in the circle. We write to organize life, guide ourselves through life's transitions, reveal parts of our unexpressed selves, and to pass stories from generation to generation like a lifeline. But "only you can discover exactly why it is that you write," according to Baldwin. "I write to leave evidence that I was here, and to make my life journey as fully conscious as I can."

Along with the stories and personal experiences the author shares is practical advice and writing exercises. The most inspiring of these are included on thirteen Lifeline cards. One of her suggestions for getting onto the page is a foundational exercise called "flow writing." Close your eyes. When you open them, let the first thing you see be your opening word. Write for five minutes. Baldwin admits her own resistance to writing and advises, "Writing is a relationship that includes our resistance to it." I was so grateful to hear that. Listing her own ten essentials for her writing relationship, the author prompts listeners to create their own. "Look at how you create the time, the space, the environment, the permission that you need. This is likely to be an evolving list as you learn more about what truly supports your writing."

As you respond to life events, you begin the "Spiral of Experience" with a "survivor's tale." Questioning and acknowledging consequences leads to "the story of integration," taking you deeper into understanding how a particular event fits into the larger story of your life. Finally, through compassion and acceptance, you enter new territory--the "story of insight and meaning."

Writing is good for your health. It boosts the immune system. It brings you into focus. And writing can help you learn to love your body, waking up the chakras of the body that is your home. As an embodied writer, you can ask yourself, "What are the five senses I can put on the page?" You can write yourself out of overwhelm and write for social healing as well as for personal healing. Baldwin suggests bringing the world onto the page. Make a collage and write commentary on what is going on in the outside world. It's okay to be opinionated on the page. As you practice on the page, you articulate your life. "Personal writing is a private process that serves as the source of significant change in our journey. We proceed from the story into action."

"Practice certainty of purpose", Baldwin advises. "Articulate your understanding of the covenant you have made with life. Write it down, read it out loud to yourself, edit and refine it, work with it. Place this message where it will guide you again and again."

by Mary Ann Moore
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Joseph Epstein is the type of writer whose works everyone should read but, sadly, too few do. He is both erudite and witty while retaining the nonchalance of "just one of the guys from the neighborhood." His writing is always insightful and always enjoyable. To those who keep a notepad and pencil handy while reading to jot down a tidbit of obscure information or a reference to a book to be explored at a later date, Mr. Epstein's books will necessitate the presence of a good pencil sharpener as well. Sadly, most of his books, of which there have been many, are now out of print. Such is the fate of interesting, witty, and sublime writers in our questionably literate time. Thankfully, A Line Out For A Walk remains available.

Comprising a series of essays, most of which originally published under his pen name "Aristides" while serving his remarkable tenure as editor of that once great journal of American letter, The American Scholar, A Line Out For A Walk is a remarkable book. In it can be found something to please the tastes of most everyone; reminiscences of old friends (some notable, some known only to a few), literary investigations, histories, ponderings, puns, observations, laments, biographical sketches, and reflections - all are offered in the straightforward yet eloquent style that has become Mr. Epstein's trademark. Should anyone finish a reading of this book and not felt themselves to have spent the time wisely and profitably, they should abandon reading altogether as they are obviously missing the point of it.

Mr. Epstein's essays are not the thin, watery things we so commonly see today, containing only a few personal, usually embarrassing remembrances of the author' life. They are full of life, being composed both the high and the low, the intellectual and the mundane. In one essay alone you are likely to find some of the life of Henry James, a note on the achievements of Jewish baseball players, an observation on the nature of indoor cats, three snippets from Lady Montagu's travel journals, a tale of life in the Chicago of the 50's, a little known personal habit of Woodrow Wilson, the real meaning behind one of Gainsborough's paintings, and a brief life of a little known but highly respected journalist from the 1890's. These are not things expected in a modern essayist; these are the qualities of products from the golden years of the essay. Indeed, Mr. Epstein should be, and no doubt someday will be, ranked among the likes of Lamb, Hazlitt, and Leibling. After all to which he has been subjected in his lifetime, it is the least that can be done to honor his outstanding work.

As a wordsmith, Epstein has few peers. These essays are to be luxuriated in, read and re-read. Pure pleasure.

In the past few years I have read a large number of the essays of Joseph Epstein. I find that he is one of the best essayists now writing. He writes with a real grasp of American everyday realities, He also has a real feeling for Literature. But what most impresses in his work is his mastery of Ideas , and his ability to clarify his experience conceptually.
Reading him is a very special kind of education, enjoyable and interesting.

November, 28, 2003

SERIES EXAMINES LIFE'S QUIRKS and SIMILARITIES

What do a spider and a Neanderthal have in common or molecules and humans? No, these are not the beginning of unfunny jokes your uncle told you at Christmas. These are examples of everyday life examined in the book of John Hodgson.
A former cellular phone salesman, Hodgson now writes full time from his home.
Using his own observations and research, Hodgson presents a series of book that look at the strange daily habits of life.
The Little Fun Book of Bees/Forests, The Little Fun Book of Spiders/Neanderthal, The Little fun Book of Molecules/Humans, and The Little Fun Book of Plants/Scorpions all take seemingly unrelated topics and find ways of showing that they are, in fact, similar in many ways.
Most people are aware that at one time Neanderthals roamed the earth hunting and gathering, crossing the landscape to survive. But how many people would instantly associate these practices with a spider? They, too, spend most of their lives hunting for food and building a home in which to live.
But Hodgson takes this to another level and looks at ways in which spiders and Neanderthals moved, ate, and survived thousands of years ago and, in the case of spiders, today. He then attempts to show that they are really not that different at all.
One only has to open the book to any random page and instantly find unique and fun comparisons written in a metaphoric and disjoined manner, aiming to make connections between the two subjects: "Spiders/Neanderthals lived together/didn't always get along;" or "Neanderthals sometimes eat spiders. Spiders sometimes bite Neanderthals."
After several of these comparisons, the reader begins to share the author's understanding of the natural world and its subtle connection Hodgson makes.
Each page has just one sentence, in large type similar to a children's book. Hodgson, however, deals with more complex issues, raising questions of how other living creatures could be related in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. In some cases he makes obvious links: scorpions and plants, for example, need dirt to live. Hodgson then takes a more philosophical approach, by showing how plants and scorpions symbolize humans in a variety of ways.
Hodgson presents to readers the ways in which life has learned to co-exist with each other despite obvious differences. He also looks at ways in which species depend on each other to survive and, in the end, it isn't always man who wins.
"Neanderthals were the building blocks of modern man. Spiders still exist." Hodgson writes.
The Little Fun Book series is certainly ideal for the person who enjoys learning and understanding the world around them from different perspectives.
The Little Fun Book series is published through 1st books library and are available at www.1stbookslibrary.com, www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.

November, 28, 2003

SERIES EXAMINES LIFE'S QUIRKS and SIMILARITIES

What do a spider and a Neanderthal have in common or molecules and humans? No, these are not the beginning of unfunny jokes your uncle told you at Christmas. These are examples of everyday life examined in the book of John Hodgson.
A former cellular phone salesman, Hodgson now writes full time from his home.
Using his own observations and research, Hodgson presents a series of book that look at the strange daily habits of life.
The Little Fun Book of Bees/Forests, The Little Fun Book of Spiders/Neanderthal, The Little fun Book of Molecules/Humans, and The Little Fun Book of Plants/Scorpions all take seemingly unrelated topics and find ways of showing that they are, in fact, similar in many ways.
Most people are aware that at one time Neanderthals roamed the earth hunting and gathering, crossing the landscape to survive. But how many people would instantly associate these practices with a spider? They, too, spend most of their lives hunting for food and building a home in which to live.
But Hodgson takes this to another level and looks at ways in which spiders and Neanderthals moved, ate, and survived thousands of years ago and, in the case of spiders, today. He then attempts to show that they are really not that different at all.
One only has to open the book to any random page and instantly find unique and fun comparisons written in a metaphoric and disjoined manner, aiming to make connections between the two subjects: "Spiders/Neanderthals lived together/didn't always get along;" or "Neanderthals sometimes eat spiders. Spiders sometimes bite Neanderthals."
After several of these comparisons, the reader begins to share the author's understanding of the natural world and its subtle connection Hodgson makes.
Each page has just one sentence, in large type similar to a children's book. Hodgson, however, deals with more complex issues, raising questions of how other living creatures could be related in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. In some cases he makes obvious links: scorpions and plants, for example, need dirt to live. Hodgson then takes a more philosophical approach, by showing how plants and scorpions symbolize humans in a variety of ways.
Hodgson presents to readers the ways in which life has learned to co-exist with each other despite obvious differences. He also looks at ways in which species depend on each other to survive and, in the end, it isn't always man who wins.
"Neanderthals were the building blocks of modern man. Spiders still exist." Hodgson writes.
The Little Fun Book series is certainly ideal for the person who enjoys learning and understanding the world around them from different perspectives.
The Little Fun Book series is published through 1st books library and are available at www.1stbookslibrary.com, www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.

November, 28, 2003

SERIES EXAMINES LIFE'S QUIRKS and SIMILARITIES

What do a spider and a Neanderthal have in common or molecules and humans? No, these are not the beginning of unfunny jokes your uncle told you at Christmas. These are examples of everyday life examined in the book of John Hodgson.
A former cellular phone salesman, Hodgson now writes full time from his home.
Using his own observations and research, Hodgson presents a series of book that look at the strange daily habits of life.
The Little Fun Book of Bees/Forests, The Little Fun Book of Spiders/Neanderthal, The Little fun Book of Molecules/Humans, and The Little Fun Book of Plants/Scorpions all take seemingly unrelated topics and find ways of showing that they are, in fact, similar in many ways.
Most people are aware that at one time Neanderthals roamed the earth hunting and gathering, crossing the landscape to survive. But how many people would instantly associate these practices with a spider? They, too, spend most of their lives hunting for food and building a home in which to live.
But Hodgson takes this to another level and looks at ways in which spiders and Neanderthals moved, ate, and survived thousands of years ago and, in the case of spiders, today. He then attempts to show that they are really not that different at all.
One only has to open the book to any random page and instantly find unique and fun comparisons written in a metaphoric and disjoined manner, aiming to make connections between the two subjects: "Spiders/Neanderthals lived together/didn't always get along;" or "Neanderthals sometimes eat spiders. Spiders sometimes bite Neanderthals."
After several of these comparisons, the reader begins to share the author's understanding of the natural world and its subtle connection Hodgson makes.
Each page has just one sentence, in large type similar to a children's book. Hodgson, however, deals with more complex issues, raising questions of how other living creatures could be related in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. In some cases he makes obvious links: scorpions and plants, for example, need dirt to live. Hodgson then takes a more philosophical approach, by showing how plants and scorpions symbolize humans in a variety of ways.
Hodgson presents to readers the ways in which life has learned to co-exist with each other despite obvious differences. He also looks at ways in which species depend on each other to survive and, in the end, it isn't always man who wins.
"Neanderthals were the building blocks of modern man. Spiders still exist." Hodgson writes.
The Little Fun Book series is certainly ideal for the person who enjoys learning and understanding the world around them from different perspectives.
The Little Fun Book series is published through 1st books library and are available at www.1stbookslibrary.com, www.amazon.com and www.barnesandnoble.com.

This is a great gift for yourself or others. It's attractive, so it really makes one want to get involved with this life-enhancing path. The author , as you probably know, is well-immersed in this field. In this book/journal, she offers a weekly lesson for introspection and illumination. These lessons include a thought for reflection that is the essence of that week's journey. The last half of the book offers lined journal pages for your use in exploring journal topics, etc. Every page is nicely decorated with shamanistic symbols. Each week's topics are not just random; they are designed in an order to lead the reader on a year-long quest for better Self-hood. It's really an exciting opportunity packaged in an enticing workbook.

I love this workbook! It asks questions and gives you exercises that really help you define who you are, what you want and how to develope ways to get there. A wonderful personal development tool!

I happened on this journal in a little bookstore in Black Mountain, NC in August of 1999. At the time my Dad was terminally ill. My brother, my Dad, and I were going through a most difficult time, emotionally. Anyway, I started working in this journal the first of September, 1999. It is a very wonderful tool for healing and uniting our inner selves. It requires DEEP introspection and therefore offers DEEP healing. I positively recommend this book, but remember before you start the journey be ready to do some real, sometimes painful, rewarding work. God Bless You!

Robert Lax,who died late last year back in his "home" of Olean,N.Y.,was a writer of spare,minimalist poetry and prose.Lauded by his comtempories{writers as diverse as Levertov,Kerouac,Maxwell and Thomas Merton considered him an absolutelt essential poet}He writes about the Large{the title piece, a reworking of the intoduction to the Gospel of John} to colors. He work is so spare that it becomes meditative. In the early 1960's Lax moved to the island of Patmos,and began life as a hermit. His speech{and poerty }became even more lean,essentially stripping away whatever he viewed as accretion.One poem written like a cascading waterfall, simply spells out colors. His greatest work, the circus of the sun, is reprinted here in part. Lax travelled with a canadian circus for awhile, and viewed the circus,metaphorically, as life. This volume is rounded out with some dairies he keopt in the mid 60's on the Greek Islands. I believe that generations to come will view him as one of the great poets of the century.For that he certainly was. An essential volume!

Robert Lax, as much as the author of a wondrous body of poetic work as for his choice of a contemplative way of living his life, is one of those writers one must know, and know deeply.

As it happens so often when it comes to poetry, the recognition of artistic achievement does not always translate into any kind of sizable exposure to the general reading public, and, in Lax's case, it may even be limited even in poetry-loving circles. To make matters even more complicated, Robert Lax left New York in the 1940's, while still young -having graduated from Columbia and written for the New Yorker for a while- and moved to Patmos, one of the Greek islands, where he lived the rest of his life in a manner reminiscent of the Fathers of the Desert during the twelfth century. So, a poet who by virtue of his "profession" already limited his chances at real fame, further disappeared into the proverbial literary woodwork, by choosing the life of a medieval saint.

Now, having established some general biographical data, let us talk about the poet and his poetry and, more specifically about this particular book. There are two aspects of Lax's writing which are important to know, one is his economy of expression-which many have described as a "minimalism" yet I avoid for the potential assumptions about his belonging to a "school" of writing rather than having make some personal choices about how to say what he wanted to say.

When it comes to Robert Lax less is not only "more", it is actually greater, deeper, a form of communion with the reader who's invited to imagine each poem along with the writer. These poems are born of a certain appreciation for the reader's intelligence and sensitivity, refusing to serve the "liquid diet" of much of contemporary over-explained poetry. With Lax, you need to work ... no, more precisely yet, you need to attend, be present, be available to the magical evocation of language.

This becomes eminently apparent particularly in the included selections from his Greek Journal. in these texts Lax goes about being deeply interested in noticing whatever he notices -not unlike a Zen Buddhist sage- looking for the poems he would see, find first in life itself, rather than as constructs in his mind. More the telling of his small epiphanies, than self-important statements from a saint "wannabe:"

"the woman who lives in the house at the bottom of the hill asked me
with a great warm smile how i was doing; i said fine, and that I was going
to work. good, she said, tapping her head, or something, to show that
the work I meant was intellectual.

which perhaps it is: it feels more, the way i do it, like adam naming
the plants & animals. looking & naming: not doing very much more."

Lax is a true spiritual man and, because of that, his poetry is the poetry of a spiritual man rather than "spiritual poetry." Although this may sound merely semantic there's a valuable distinction to be drawn from it, these poems are not necessarily about spiritual topics -the triumphs and defeats of being a faithful man, or the counsels of someone who's attained certain degree of enlightment over material pursuits- yet it is, very much so, about spiritual matters, the diary of a man earnestly pondering over what it is to live a meaningful life, a poetic existence.

Whether it is one of his "diary entries" or one of his poems about circus life -the circus-inspired poems being another prominent aspect of Lax's writing, many of which are included in this flawless collection- what comes across so powerfully is the careful observation of trapeze artists and horse riders perfecting their crafts and longing to touch their audience. The circus and its people are not a childhood memory nor a passing interest in a odd, social group, it is a faithful community of men and women, a form of ecumenical work:

Our dreams have tamed the lions,
have made pathways in the jungle,
peaceful lakes; they have built new
Edens ever-sweet and ever-changing
By day from town to town we carry
Eden in our tents and bring its won-
ders to the children who have lost
their dream at home.

Robert Lax was this kind of poet, his so-called "hermit life" was his attempt to live a life of observation, meditation and, in perhaps a not so obvious way, a life of communion with this world.
Tolstoi is quoted as saying that if you "paint your village" you could achieve universality in your work. In the case of Robert Lax, what he has so beautifully depicted when it comes to the circus, or noted so wisely about a small Greek island, has made him a timeless, devoted observer of the welcomed difficulties of becoming an honorable human being.

" to be 'enlightened' is not to shine; nor to bring
multitudes to the hill where one sits cross-legged,
to listen.

it is rather to know what one is doing (& even,
perhaps, to enjoy it.)"

This book describes silence in gorgeous prose and poetry. I recommend it to anyone who loves the sound and feel of the written word and the sound and feel of quiet.

I bought this item as gift for my fiance. He currently lives in FL & often ask me about Love Is which is printed daily in the Chicago Suntimes.
I saw this book and I knew I had to buy it for him for Valentines Day. He Loves it and says it is a treasure.

Product arrived as advertised - very good quality.
Larger than previous Love Is books - Very Satisfied.

This is a cute paperback version of the hardcover cartoon collection that is also sold on Amazon. Amazon has done a lousy job with thier item descriptions and you never know what you are ordering anymore.