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This book is a collection of short stories, articulated in 7 sections. Cassandra is about vision. A "premonition." It is loosely related to neuro difference, mental illness, mental states often considered "altered." Hell is about death (as an ultimately altered state), but not only. Also about our imaginary of the afterlife, especially about the figure of the devil/demon, the idea of evil. Mozart, a section about love, declined by a number of different love stories, some happy some not, some complex, some linear. In Color is also about love, but from a child's point of view. It is about childhood. I should say girlhood. About coming of age, but it goes backwards and closes upon infant memories. Alter Alter contains the title story, and it focuses on the main theme of the book. It contains several stories of sisterhood, either biological or not. All the stories in Long Distance add to the relationship with the other an element of displacement and remoteness. Drift amplifies the distance and resumes a surreal tone, similar to that of the first section.

Salt Oracle is a collection of poems about the earth, the home, and the ancestral memory of the human body. It celebrates the connection of that body with the contents of its environment-with the body's movement and grace; with food that unfolds into generational tales; and with the dreams that, like memory, bridge the divide of human existence.Estrellas de marLa espuma salada del marcrece en las manoshumedeciendo los huesos ancestrales de mi especie.Las manos se conviertenen el templo del rito sagrado,ese rito que cada día lo repitocomo si fuera un ritoque me devuelve la graciaStarfishThe salty foam of the seagrows in my handsand dampens my ancestral bones.My hands become a templefor that sacred ritualthat I repeat dailyas if it were a ritethat returns me to graceLa mirada del águilaSus ojos hablan el lenguaje de otros mundos,los silencios eternos se hacen presentesen el ave de la magia y del presagioque aparece detrás del vidrio.The Eagle's GazeIts eyes speak the language of other worlds;the eternal silences emergein the bird of magic and prophecythat appears behind the glass.

"Letters Under Rock" Poetry Performance collects from many landscapes and faith traditions: Morocco, Ireland, the Sahara, India, Japan, Cambodia, etc. Animism, angels, Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, Desert Mothers, Saints, etc. There are rituals, ghosts, forest spirits, rebirth, mollusk that tells a story, dragon, heron, swan. This story reaches across time and space told in love letters left under a rock of an orphan Wanderer and a Nomad.

Through his work with people who were struggling with serious illness, Alden Sproull discovered a journey of reflection, insight, and trust. Walking the edge between life and death with those who battled for their lives was exciting, challenging, disturbing, troubling and, ultimately, life-changing. Join him and discover for yourself what it means to walk the edge of life.

The beginning is the thought process. Thoughts need to be organized. By doing that, feelings and the unconscious mind kick in. Those avenues travel and need to be crafted into a precise short form. Only a few words should express a lot of meaning. Each line stirs more ideas and thoughts. English is and always will be my second language. In the end effect the meaning of the poem is what counts.

It's an easily made mistake to think of the Psalms as a "book," for most of the time we encounter them either in reading or as spoken, complete with chapters and verses. They're found in the middle of the Bible (aka the "Big book"), alongside other diverse writings, so we often locate them among the literary genres such as histories, legal works, teachings, satires, prophecies, letters and even gospels.While they work well that way too, it's always helpful to remember that the Psalms were a hymnbook for the people of God, the Jews, who used these songs to give voice to their life circumstances in relationship with that God. With 150 opportunities, a wide range of experiences come to the fore, both similar and unique.And they can be wonderfully personal. Though there is a power to common experience, be it in worship or in a concert hall (or a roadhouse), we all hear the music differently. From the wild hope of Psalm 91 (God as "refuge") to the brutality of Psalm 137 (v.9 "Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!"), there may be something for everyone, something for anything.This also applies to the expressions. Even in modern times, the best musicians who use words are characterized by a diverse "catalog." Take for example Aretha Franklin - from the play and pointedness of "Respect" to the sheer grandeur of her best takes on "Amazing Grace," or the Beatles - the giddy hopefulness in "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to the pathos of "Eleanor Rigby." Great musical art emerges from real life's varieties, then transcends them, only to return us to terra firma, perhaps different than we were before. In that spirit, a number of artists produced the works found in this book. Inspired by their own experiences with particular Psalms, these people of God give form to how the texts have spoken to them. As it should be, they vary considerably, multiple voices of faith collected under one roof.I suspect that nothing in the Bible works as well as the Psalms with the practice of "bibliomancy," the practice of randomly opening it up to see what you may see. Often, I have found myself with a half an hour and no agenda, probably between things, so out has come the book, flipped open near the middle, and it has (sometimes) sung as it may. It is my hope that the pieces of art included herein will encourage and complement the same.Many have noted over the centuries that Psalm 1 and Psalm 150 bookend the psalter, starting with a call to participation based on common sense (1:3 "They are like trees planted by streams of water") and concluding with sheer joy (150:6 "Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!"). We like it when life's wisdoms "work," but what we really want is to end in joy. Individually and collectively, the Psalms can address and transform our journeys. So be it.