Down in the White of the Tree: Spiritual Poems

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The marriage of poetry and spirituality is of course an ancient one, and in Down in the White of the Tree, Tim J. Myers works in that tradition. But his isn't conventional religious poetry, some of which, he believes, is either inadequate for genuine spiritual seeking or antithetical to it. Myers works from the larger tradition, in which Rilke speaks of God as the profoundly distant Center on whose outermost periphery we reside--and from which Hafiz can assert that the universe is "just a tambourine" for us to play against our "warm thigh[s]." These are poems of doubt, of faith, and of a profound love for the radiance we can encounter in the world.

Reviews

"Tim J. Myers writes of the sacred--not inside church halls looking through stained-glass windows--but with the cat in the alleyway, the bat sweeping through night, white trees, winter's slushy streets. He puts "spirit' where it needs to be, part of our daily lives, released from brick's moral tones into an appreciation of all that's alive among us. Myers writes with the heart's imagination, placing light on our modest existences made more meaningful with a language that unifies mind and soul. Down in the White of the Tree is a contribution to spiritual literature because words are seeds, vectors of love and hope, and will change to the good with each reading." Grace Cavalieri, "The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress" "A rich and wonderful collection... Openhearted and alert to the world around him, ever connecting wisdom and wit, his poems are stirring, entertaining, and even edifying. Really first rate in every way." Ron Hansen, National Book Award finalist and author of Mariette in Ecstasy "[Tim J. Myer's] language, like that of the classic poets of the T'ang dynasty, is as clear as fresh water - a clarity that may hide at first the depth of thought behind each poem. There's also a deep humanity in his work, as well as a sincere awareness of and respect for the circle of being that surrounds us." Joseph Bruchac, Abenaki writer and storyteller

Author Bio

Tim J. Myers is a writer, songwriter, storyteller, and senior lecturer at Santa Clara University. His children's books have won recognition from the New York Times, NPR, and the Smithsonian; he has 15 out and more on the way. He's published over 140 poems, won a first prize in a poetry contest judged by John Updike, has three books of adult poetry out, published a nonfiction book on fatherhood, and won a major prize in science fiction. He also won the West Coast Songwriters Saratoga Chapter Song of the Year Award and the 2012 SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Fiction.