Poetry is not only the most sublimely difficult but the most deeply personal of all word-arts. Close to a spiritual autbiography, this collection mostly strives to express what lies beyond the reach... More > of language: beauty, horror, love, the sacred.. Readers have suggested similarities to Neruda, Paz, Rumi, Blake, Rilke, and Rimbaud.
Poetry improves with age and repeated appreciation, like a wine or a violin: the more one reads a good poem the more insight it provides; indeed, it draws us back repeatedly to read it, to read it aloud, to linger yet again before its beauty and marvel at its wisdom.
And, finally, as someone said, “Poetry is the art of breaking words across the silence without disturbing it.”
Good poetry – unlike prose, which revels in its own loquacity – economizes to the point that what little is said does not describe, as does prose, but points to, just as a finger points at the moon; for silence is as asymptotically close as we humans can get to the perfect truth.
--from the Preface< Less
An American who cannot afford to live in his own house escapes to Panamá. Finds himself in Heaven - a beautiful land with wonderful people - but finds corrosive civilization coming ever nearer... More > this fragile alien world.
In this travel memoir, novelist James David Audlin tells of his adventures in one of the world's last frontier lands. Here one still sees Ngäbe Buglé people, in their bare feet and traditional finery, walking through the village as if they are visiting from another planet. Here descendants of the Conquistadores still ride horseback on dirt roads far too rutted for the new arrivals, the gringos, to negotiate in their big SUVs. Here in the temblor-shaken Tierras Altas, in the shadow of the great Barú volcano at the center of the world - here, for a while yet, there is a respite from the worldwide flood of commercialism, bigotry, arrogation, and greed. But it will not last much longer.< Less
A retired skater is driven by guilt over her husband's death to return to the village where she was raised, lacking the will to live any longer. But oblivion will not take her; she begins hearing... More > stories whispered to her from walls and floors – from boards of funguswood, taken from a species of trees long since rendered extinct by humanity.
A shill on death row somehow escapes prison by way of an old Leadbelly song; or perhaps it is a drug-induced madness. He comes to the same village and spies on the skater, out on the Suicide Flats nearby, talking for hours with something that looks like tumbleweed.
A tree, either the last or the first of its species, who is curiously familiar with Shakespeare, Blake, and Milton, and who bears humanity no ill will, is looking for a savior.< Less
THE CIRCLE OF LIFE presents traditional oral Native American sacred teachings from the Iroquois, Lakota, and other traditions. The author has been receiving these teachings from elders since his... More > youth. The wisdom embraces cosmology, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, sociology, psychology, healing, dream interpretation, and more.
Audlin calls himself neither a spiritual teacher nor an authority, but a conduit through which these oral traditions can be presented meaningfully to people in a modern world. He outlines universal principles common to many traditional peoples worldwide.
The Red Road is available to all —regardless of religion or ethnicity — willing to follow its paths. These paths, however, are often not easy and require deep personal and spiritual commitment. Audlin says in his introduction: “If this book serves any purpose, let it be to help us bring the Sacred Hoop of All the Nations back together again, so we and all that lives may stand as one in silent awe before that Great Mystery.”< Less
About James David Audlin
James David Audlin was born in the Thousand Islands, between New York and Ontario. He now lives in a rural mountain region in Panama, after previously living in France.
A retired pastor, college professor, and newspaper editor, he is best known as the author of THE CIRCLE OF LIFE, describing his lifelong learnings about Native American spirituality, and the monumental heptology of novels “The Seven Last Days”.
He has written about a dozen novels, full-length plays, several books of short stories, essays, and poetry, and a book about his adventures in Panama. Fluent in several languages, he has translated his novel RATS LIVE ON NO EVIL STAR into French and Spanish.
He also is a professional musician who composes, sings, and plays several instruments, though not usually at the same time.
He is married to a Panamanian lady who doesn’t read English, and is therefore blissfully ignorant about his weirdly strange books.
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