Now is the Hour of Her Return: Poems in Praise of the Divine Mother Kali

by Clark Strand, Will Lytle (Illustrator)

Overview

Strand’s mystical poems to Ma Kali, the Dark Goddess of India, as occasioned by his encounters with the material dealt in depth in both Waking Up to the Dark and the Way of the Rose.

“A treasure of mystical poetry, these poems pulsate with truth.” —Carolyn Myss, author of Intimate Conversations with the Divine and Anatomy of the Spirit

In the early hours of June 16, 2011, Clark Strand witnessed a startling apparition of the Divine Feminine in the form of a young woman with an X of black electrical tape over Her mouth. Strand removed the tape, and She began to speak of a coming age of chaos and collapse in which the world of humankind would be severely chastened so that Her world—the world of Nature—could be renewed. Overwhelmed by the presence of One so fully Other, Strand found that love was the only language that would suffice. Drawing inspiration from Song of Songs and the Bengali mystics Ramprasad and Sri Ramakrishna, he began a series of poems to Ma Kali, the Dark Goddess of India, the words to which often came from the Great Mother Herself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781948626743
Publisher:	Monkfish Book Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/20/2022
Pages:	102
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 5.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Clark Strand is the former senior editor at Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. He is the current editor of the Haiku Challenge, which is a monthly Haiku context sponsored by Tricycle. He is the author of many books on spirituality and religion, including Seeds from a Birch Tree, Meditation Without Gurus, How to Believe in God, Waking the Buddha, and Waking Up to the Dark.  His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. With his wife, Perdita Finn, Strand is also the author of The Way of the Rose: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary, and the co-founder of an international, non-sectarian rosary fellowship. He lives in Woodstock, New York.

Illustrator Will Lytle grew up in the Catskill Mountains, where, after years as a hitchhiking, train-hopping vagabond, he returned to build a small house with wood from his family's lumber mill. An accomplished illustrator, mural artist, and the creator of the guerilla-style Thorneater Comics series, Lytle also illustrated Strand's Waking Up to the Dark and Strand and Finn's The Way of the Rose.

Read an Excerpt

These Belong to You
 
Kali, I write these songs,
But they belong to You
To do with as You please.
I am like the bead a cord
Passes through, a field
The wind blows over,
The banks of a stream.
 
As long as cord and wind
And water pass through me,
That’s enough. Let my words
Fall deeper each day
Into the bottomless black
Well of Mother Kali’s ear.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

These Belong to You xv

Part I

When Bengal Came to Me 3

The Knowledge Roses Have 4

Are You Prepared to See Me? 5

The Night We First Made Love 6

In the Dark 7

The Weight of Every Hour 8

But I Didn't Know She Was a Woman 10

Blue One Day and Middle Aged 12

All That Is Lost to Me Now 14

The Night Opened Her Legs 15

For She Is Also Seeking You 16

Part II

What Kind of Mother Does That? 21

It's Me They Seek 22

How They All Go Out 24

A Dropped Stone 25

That Night You Lost Your Cloak 26

When I'm Gone 27

Two Can Play That Game 28

The Festival of Bones 29

Where Else Could I Go? 30

Brother Louis 31

The Ride of the Cosmos 32

In the Sun 34

Part III

Show Me the Man Who Will Listen 39

Her Patience Is at an End 40

Who Is Her Father? 41

If Only It Were That Easy 42

An Eight-Year-Old Girl 43

I Do Not Forget 45

Now Is the Hour of Her Return 46

Call Me Mother 47

The River of the Dead 48

The Long Black Body of the Dark 50

The Time of the End 51

Said the Moon, Remembering 53

Part IV

The Glances that Pass Between You 59

Find a Girl and Love Her 61

Such A One 62

Here's What Really Happened 64

I'm Smaller Than That Now 65

Call Me On Your Own Bones 66

Kali's Box 67

Hide-and-Seek 68

You Did This to Yourself? 69

For Lo, I Have Quieted Myself 70

Take the Mississippi, For Example 71

To Lay One's Heart Upon the Ground 74

Afterword 77

About the Author and Illustrator 83

Editorial Reviews

"Clark Strand's revelatory poems peer into the divide between order and disorder, separation and union, life and death. Not a word is wasted. In these pages we are pulled into relationship with a sensuous, even bemused Kali whose 'children fly apart' at the sight of her; a powerful Kali who lures and leads. Truths loom large here. Fling open Now Is The Hour Of Her Return and let yourself be consumed." —Laura Grace Weldon, 2019 Ohio Poet of the Year

"A provocative book of poetry with stunning illustrations. You will have a new understanding of Ma Kali after reading Clark Strand's enchanting collection. Kali broke my heart open and kept me thoroughly entertained." —Trista Hendren, Creator of The Girl God series 

“A treasure of mystical poetry, these poems pulsate with truth.” —Carolyn Myss

From the Publisher