The Hero’S Journey: Collected Poems 2015–2016

By Carmine Giordano

Were all on a heros journey. You cant get through your life without some kind of heroism, particularly when you have to change most of what you believed in before you could really see, and Lucifer now seems the brighter angel for his fall.

The man on the cover of this volume thought he was taking a photograph of me but held the camera in a such a way that he photographed only himself. Theres major truth in what he did. When we aim to capture something about the world, its really just ourselves that we capture. All that we say about the world we live in and observe is always about extracted pieces of that world as they have been processed, rinsed, and most certainly, altered through our own experiences, our senses, our ideology, our beliefs, and whatever other filters we employ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: May 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514488188

Carmine Giordano

Carmine Giordano was born in Brooklyn, New York, and has an MA in English Literature from New York University and was a recipient of a Fulbright Award for Study in Italy. He is a retired teacher and assistant principal from the New York City Board of Education. He is also a nationally certified psychoanalyst and a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis (NAAP). He is an assistant editor of the online poetry magazine Abalone Moon and the author of six poetry collections: The Courage of Flowers, The Hero’s Journey, Still Sing, The Habit of Spring, Collected Poems 2020, and Saving Daylight. His poetry has appeared in The South Hampton Review, The River Poets Journal, Abalone Moon, Poets of the Palm Beaches Anthology, Perspectives, and Belletrist. Mr. Giordano has spent most of his life teaching writing and literature in New York, Georgia and Florida where he is an adjunct lecturer at Palm Beach State College and lives in happy retirement with his wife Ronnie.

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Copyright © 2016 by Carmine Giordano.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016906777

ISBN:   Hardcover           978-1-5144-8820-1

             Softcover             978-1-5144-8819-5

             eBook                  978-1-5144-8818-8

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.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 05/18/2016

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CONTENTS

1. Bouquet

2. Easter Morning

3. Song

4. Calling the Wild

5. The Liturgy of Penitence

6. The Supreme Lightness of Being

7. Last Night

8. Q & A at the Green Cay

9. Last Stand at the Bada Bing

10. Lucifer, Descending

11. Howl

12. Carrion Comfort

13. Memorizing Golgotha

14. Eucharist

15. Credo

16. Pilgrim

17. The Hero’s Journey

18. Paradise Redux

19. Encounter

20. One Night Stand

21. The Long Run

22. Legacy

23. On the Hill

24. Summa Theologica

25. Soliloquy

26. The Taming of Fire

27. The School of Athens

28. A Recipe for Savor

29. Apologia Pro Vita Sua

30. The Brightness of Being

31. Graven Images

32. Question

33. Blue

34. A Kaddish for Myra

35. Valentine for Sappho

36. Hoops of Steel

37. My Wife in Metaphor

38. Enough

39. Strange Gods

40. Making Do

41. What It Is

42. After the Fall

43. Valentine

44. Night Journey

45. Mission Impossible

46. Lullaby

47. The Poem of Amazing Facts

48. Monkey Shines

49. The Groanings of the Spirit

50. Non Sense

51. In the Fire

52. Advising Cotton Mather

53. Out of Joint

54. What’s So

55. Against the Common View

56. Passerby

57. Day Song

58. Le Opera Comique

59. Snowfall

60. Italo-Americano

61. Aubade

62. Poor Tom

63. Towards Light

64. Trellising the Rose

65. Metamorphosis

66. Comic Stock

67. Attitude and Magnitude

68. Chippendale’s

69. Narishkeit

70. Wake-up Call

71. Muscovy

72. Barn Fire

73. Roman Holiday

74. Here and There

75. Brooklyn Madonna

76. For Li Po

77. Kingdom Come

78. Nocturne

79. Aftermath

80. Afterlife

81. On Sinai

82. More or Less

83. Simple Gifts

84. Brief Candle

85. Koan

86. Necessary Surgery

87. Pomp and Circumstance

88. Carpe Diem

89. At the Gate

Always for Ronnie

Heart’s Chocolate,

Sweet Candy,

Rose Bouquet, my

All Day, Everyday,

Valentine

And

for all my friends

whose cheers, support and care keep me writing

Gloria & George, Lea, Gerry, Brian, Jerry, Barbara, Tim & Gabi, Carolyn