Read an Excerpt
Preface
"Some people react physically to the magic of poetry, to the moments, that is, of authentic revelation, of the communication, the sharing, at its highest level. . . . A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, helps to extend everyone’s knowledge of himself and the world around him." —Dylan Thomas (1913-1953)
From an early age, my mother would gather me and my brothers after school for "workshops" in music, visual art, and writing. I grew to love the poems of Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas, Rumi, Yeats, and others that she read to us. She read her own compositions, as well, and taught us to write our own. For me poetry allowed word to be given to the things that otherwise had no voice, and I discovered the strength and soul of poetry—through it we come to know; we are led to feel, sense, and to expand our understanding beyond words.
Long before I wrote my first song, words formed as poems in my journals; and poetry drives my song writing today. My songs are strongly influenced by Pablo Neruda, Bukowsky, Octavio Paz; and musically I admire the great poetic lyricists like many of the writers of Tin Pan Alley, and others, like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, and Tom Waites. Each forged the bridge from poetry to music.
I’ve learned that not all poetry lends itself to music—some thoughts need to be sung only against the silence. There are softer and less tangible parts of ourselves that are so essential to openheartedness, to peace, to unfolding the visionand the spiritual realm of our lives, to exposing our souls. Poetry is a passage into those parts of our being where we understand who we have been and where we discover and decide who and what we will be. It makes us intimate with ourselves and others and with the human experience. It stirs the Divine within us and whispers all the things there are no words for, and this is essential to bring balance and dimension to the human expression.
Poetry is the most honest and immediate art form that I have found, it is raw and unfiltered. It is a vital, creative expression and deserves to find greater forums, to be more highly valued, understood, and utilized in our culture and in our lives. There is such wonderful poetry in the world that wants to be given voice. My hope is to help inspire an appreciation and expression of that voice.
