“Seven Distant Chantings” presents a collection of seven poems of various lengths written in free verse over a period of fifty years. The poems are essentially distilled selections from previous works of poetry and poetic stories, revised to varying degrees to accommodate their condensing in their re-presentation. The dates of original publication appear at the conclusion of each work, along with the current date of the revised shorter form of the texts. Several of the poems involve historical figures whose stories are presented with poetic license rather like the degree of fictionalization one encounters in a historical novel.
The common ground of these highly varied works-their underlying spiritual theme-is human dignity hallowed by the presence of the divine throughout all the struggles, aspirations, and vicissitudes attendant on the experience of life and love, good and evil, seeking fulfillment and facing death. Humans are remarkable beings; we precariously carry immortal dreams like treasure within the journey of our mortal limitations.
