Bright Existence

A Note about the Book

A Note about theBook These poems were influenced by my readings in gnosticism, particularly Hans Jonas, to whom I owe a debt, and the old texts in The Nag Hammadi Library, which emphasize an inward search for reality, a disjunction between spirit and matter and the soul's individual journey. In 'the present volume,' the first section finds the soul at dawn, the middle sections move through matter, dailiness and the wounded self, and the final section is a dialogue between love and its shadows. I also owe a debt to the landscapes of West Marin and to Jules Evens for his Natural History of the Point Reyes Peninsula. While I wasworking on this book, a close friend died, and I wrote Death Tractates. It could not be "inserted" into this book, which caused me some difficulty. I now see the two volumes as intimate companions. x Bright Existence This page intentionally left blank ...