Love Letters

By Susan Windle

Love Letters is a collection of forty-four poems. A secular invitation to communal prayer, the poetry in this book celebrates, as Susan says, the usness of us, the indisputable and essential nature of our belonging to one another and to the earth. The poems are vital acts of peace-making and justice-seeking to be used for nothing less than the salvation of our species.

Loving letters, loving words, loving worlds and lines of poetry, loving earth and earthlings; eyes open, ears open, mind open and precise -- .... How could any reader help but love you back?

--Rabbi Arthur Waskow, co-author of The Tent of Abraham.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 16, 2007
• ISBN: 9781465315281

Susan Windle

Susan Windle, founder of the ensemble Voices of a Different Dream, is a performing poet. She has presented her poetry in many settings, for audiences ranging from the very young to the very old. She is co-author of Already Near You: Poetry in Concert with poet Ellen Ford Mason and co-creator of two recordings: Unimagined Possibilities and You Know My Name. An avid collaborator, Susan has worked with visual artists as well as other poets and musicians to create a lively and unusual blending of artistic voices. www.susanwindle.com

Book preview

Copyright © 2007 by Susan Windle.

Cover art by Alana Lea.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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44002

Contents

My Poetics

Here

Messengers

Jahrzeit

Walking Lessons

Holes

Listening in the Dark

Song of the Stone

Malkuta

Home Extensions

Oriole

In the Nest

Phlox

This Day

Spring Prayer

Oh Nancy, Your Self Portrait…

In the Garden State

Joy

The Point

Ocean’s Psalm

Provincetown Harbor,

October Light

Morning Glory Minyan

Letter from a Gentile

Sh’ma

Meeting

Conversation

Reading the Letter Pei

(A Prayer, After Harsh Words)

L’shua (My Salvation)

Paphiopedilum

This Thing We Do

Rambling Toward Ripeness

(Picking for Pie)

The Call of the Cattleya Orchid

Moral Values

The Hearing

Firepower

How Some People Move

Treasure from a Looted Land

A Word

Pleiades

Sleepers Awake

Letters in the Night

(A Villanelle)

Aleph

Reflections from the Bridge

About the Cover Artist

Poem Prints and other Collaborations

Acknowledgments

So many of these poems have their origin in holy conversation with Rabbi Phyllis Berman that I must give her the first thanks: for listening impeccably and conversing deliciously with me over these past two years. I am grateful to our mutual teacher Rabbi Shefa Gold and to the Kol Zimra community for infusing my life with song and weaving with me a fine basket of love and support. Continuing gratitude also to my teacher,