I Wrap My Thoughts in Watered Silk by Louada Voellner

I have no picture for this one. It is out of print but I wanted to put it in my blog because it was written by a St.Louisan poet and published the year I was born. So this is it's thirtieth anniversary, along with mine. And though it is insignificant, like I am, I wanted to give it it's due on my insignificant little blog.
The author was elderly when she wrote it, which is a testimony to the art of poetry never leaving the soul. I'm going to share my favorite poem yet from this collection:

Faceless and formless
but real to my mind,
my Other Self.
a witch I call "Majesty,"
stands still as a hummingbird
in midair,
watching me.

-Louda Voellner



J.L.Wills

Averno by Louise Gluck

Oh I love it. Something about it on the store bookshelf made me pick it up and now I've fallen in love. This is poetry like I could never dream of writing. It is strong and lasting. A few of these poems made it into my all time favorite poem journal. Very searching, very honest. Five stars!

J.L.Wills

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

When I picked this up, I had no idea what to expect. My mouth stands open. I feel like I've read a map to the entryway of my soul. I keep going back and reading my favorite parts over and over. I am in love with these words. They come off the page in my own voice, like they speak from somewhere I have been already, remember acutely. Gibran himself is a prophet, only a prophet could speak such true words. I want to quote him here to give you a taste, here the prophet is speaking of love:

"For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

...

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears."

-Kahlil Gibran

Hungry Woman in Paris by Josefina Lopez

Wow, it's been a long time since I've read a streamline sensuality novel. Can't really call it romance, as Canela ends up single. Single and happy with her many sexual adventures. It was a good change from the usually heavy novels I pick up. And a much needed break from the work of non-fiction I am currently trapped in, reading as a personal gain of knowledge. Which I want...but don't enjoy nearly as much as a good, long, well-told lie. I enjoyed this little book. An easy read sure to make women of any shape and size repect it's story.

J.L.Wils